Here it is – another 4th of July in these ‘united’ states …
And here we are, 3000 miles in the middle of the sea – not even remotely trying to be part of the mainland culture most folks who were born here simply call America. It is enough, this melange of beautiful people whose origins always make for a good guessing game. We are collectively in a state of becoming, anyway – morphing into One race of human beings – love being color blind as it is. And this may well result in a world with no racism, which would be amazing to witness. We are all in a state of becoming, so why not become the best we are collectively capable of?
I have always sympathized with the underdog and the underserved, and unfortunately racism tends to lump entire populations into one or both categories, though not always. When we lived on Molokai 20 years ago, we were the object of racism, being white or haole (literally translated as ‘life without spirit’ – take that, ghost demons!). We got to learn firsthand what it felt like for millions of other people throughout the world who have suffered throughout time for being different than – what an invaluable experience. And though racism is still alive and well here in Paradise as it is wherever ignorance takes hold, we personally observe aloha to be by far the prevalent sentiment. The breath of life to you! How utterly refreshing.
As plans are underway to celebrate this day, I am mindful of what freedom means to me – not the freedom to crush others I view as potential and distant threats, robbing them of their own sense of security and serenity – but the freedom we all have in our hearts, no matter where we are or where we’ve come from. Victor Frankl, who suffered enormous physical and psychological pain as a result of Hitler’s concentration camps and who later became an eminent psychologist and prolific writer offers, “Everything can be taken from a man or a woman but one thing: the last of human freedoms to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
Let it be so for us today – may we choose to cultivate peace in our hearts. As we delight in the company of loved ones and others we do not know, as together we watch the fireworks exploding above our heads, let us remember, beyond these bursts of fire and light lies a billion stars – the same luminaries that people all over the world, people just like us, have gazed at since the beginning of time – with a dream in their hearts and the hope for a life free of hardship and strife.
Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.
~ old Quaker hymn
