What do you choose to believe?
It matters...
Somedays, I find myself listening too much to the media... to the divided state in which we live... to the hate... to the chaos...
And, I worry for the future and feel the disharmony of the real complexity of human beings and the world we live in...
Yet,
I look around all the time and see love, beauty and brotherhood...
all around me...
all the time.
I am not saying hate and divisiveness is not real... They absolutely are...
But they are a small fraction of the world...
Evil is a small seed with a powerful voice...
I took an Uber this morning - and like every Uber and Lift driver; working two jobs... sometimes immigrants (often), sometimes veterans, often African American... from all different backgrounds....
Uber, Lift, Taxi drivers are such a wonderful cross section of our world... and they present such a unique & intimate opportunity to exchange ideas and perspectives with different souls in our universe...
and, I am always energized and full of hope for mankind when I have these random conversations... regardless of whether we agree or disagree on the topics we discuss... I find respect, ambition, drive, morality and rationality... and goodness!
NOTICE the world around you...
BELIEVE in the love and rationality you witness in your life...
I see is EVERYWHERE, and I BELIEVE!
Human interactions, one on one, are almost always an expression of respect and love...
Holding the door for your fellow human being...
Ceding the way, the lane, the merge...
Exchanging glances with the people you see on the street... They are most often kind and caring...
When you smile... others smile...
I see it everywhere... and I BELIEVE.
I was walking along the Mississippi River in New Orleans this weekend... we talked to pan handlers... I saw people playing jazz in the street... I saw people waiting in line... Strangers finding each other... I saw people dancing, sharing, smiling, laughing, living with goodness in their hearts...
And, I saw a man, sitting on a bench... spewing hate... insults and evil in the world... and he was alone... no one was talking to him.
I started with the thought ... SEE there is evil... and this is the consequence of our current divided state... but then I stopped. I thought to myself, look ALL AROUND you and take it all in... I walked away thinking EVIL is small... LOVE is big!
In his heart of hearts, this man feels alone, and he is, and he is scared... He is spewing hate from his fear when what he ultimately seeks is love...
Somehow... the vast majority of the world gets it... and at moments, we get confused, we forget...
I smiled at the the thought... this lonely man's voice is the voice amplified by the media on both sides. It's not "fake" news... not at all... it's just news lacking context and balance... because the balance is not nearly as scary... When it comes to the media, LOVE is not as marketable as FEAR...
but the media is feeding us what they know will get us to turn our heads...
they sell us with FEAR, but
the truth is LOVE...
Human beings in large groups are easier to align behind fear, not love... it's an easier emotion to promote and default to... it's a powerful emotion... we default to it too often in groups, when our face and heart are not seen, and hidden behind an aggregated voice...
BUT, FACE TO FACE... we choose LOVE over and over again... because FACE TO FACE is HEART TO HEART... It's a more intimate and deeper truth of who we are...
I get the difference...
Be bold enough, rational enough... to see it...
and
BELIEVE!
The small voice of evil cannot and will not win over our minds, over our hearts, over the overwhelming majority of love...
I have deeply seated issues with the morality of the current politics... and yet, the people I know on BOTH sides of the aisle are kind, caring, generous people.
I ask myself, can I embrace people with values that are so different than my own?
And, the answer without hesitation is a resounding YES...
because our TRUTH is complicated, and as human beings it is hard for us not to be in some meaningful disagreement on ANY and EVERY issue... moral, political, religious, philosophical, or simply behavioral..
Life and TRUTHS are complex and simple at the same time...
The current state of dividedness challenges all of us... meaningfully. In ways, we have not been exposed to for generations... but it doesn't challenge us more than separation from England did hundreds of years ago, or than the concept of slavery did during the Civil War (or more recently), or Women's Rights... or during the difficult times of World War II...
And, GOODNESS and LOVE WIN... OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN!
BELIEVE!
Life will always find a new way to challenge human kind...
And, we need to keep SEEING each other...
Seeing each other's truth... and the love in our hearts...
ACCEPT our right to a different perspective...
And, never stop believing that GOOD and LOVE is more powerful than FEAR and EVIL...
and we find GOODNESS, the moment we accept that no one fully owns the RIGHT answer.
I say this while still feeling some disharmony and concern that at some point a desire for compromise and understanding leads to terrible tragedy and immorality... when a vocal minority overwhelms a moral majority...
Yet, I BELIEVE!!!
I believe because I SEE the abundant love all around me in the people I know and the people I don't...
I believe... because I accept that life and situations and truth in the moment are complex... and our "dividedness" is rational and unavoidable...
And, ultimately I don't believe we are divided as a majority that at the core of our being, as a species, as individuals on the basics of MORALITY, HUMAN KINDNESS, and LOVE...
What do YOU choose to believe?
...choose wisely...
I BELIEVE because I realize ONLY through believing in the goodness of our fellow man, can GOOD win!
I don't believe because I have to...
I believe because I SEE kindness and vulnerability...
I see love and I see fear... in EVERYONE I meet...
Even in the man spewing hate... because he hasn't embraced the difference.
I see it in myself...
I see it in every moment...
in music... in art... in business... in all of it...
in every being,
in every handshake...
in every glance...
in every exchange!
I SEE IT...
And, I BELIEVE!
in harmony,
Nestor