The Other Side
“Even when we disagree, are we able to listen with an open mind?”
“How do we remain open to a different point of view?”
These were the queries in my Quaker meeting this morning. The first Sunday of every month is Query Sunday, and the host creates a question to discuss in traditional Quakerly fashion, with intention and surrounded by silence, for the members of the group. This query was inspired by upcoming election day and many beautiful comments came out of the mouths of my fellow Quakers. We discussed our family members that have differing political views; and in today’s political climate this creates more of a divide than ever. Even subjects such as hell, salvation, the absence of god, and philosophy were explored. It was a very meaningful and deeply profound Query Sunday.
Later in the meeting, after contemplating so very deeply, it occurred to me where I truly learned to value the differences in others and to accept and love them despite what they do or believe. It is very clear to me that in my struggle with mental illness, and becoming an outsider because of my symptoms and potentially offensive behavior, is where I learned to exercise these brain and heart muscles. I first had to reckon with myself. I did not like being the person I was when I was ill, and I feel I behaved in ways that brought me shame. By learning to accept and love myself the way I was, and by taking ownership of my actions, I looked mental illness in the face and began to love it. I accepted it. I loved the ugly and profane within myself. By doing this I learned to accept and love others who suffered; addiction, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, alcoholism. I was able to see that the behavior of these people was not who they were, for I had learned this about myself. I was able to look beyond stigma. By practicing loving others who suffered with mental illness, I continued to expand my practice of self love for all those moments in which I digressed or fell back into uncomfortable and distasteful symptoms. I learned forgiveness for myself and acceptance for others.
Later I found myself going to church with people that had very different political beliefs than me. I was able to look past all of this because what we were there to do was to learn more about love and how to practice this in our lives. I found myself able to accept people fully, and to love them, despite that they may very well vote differently than me. Again, in today’s political climate, where we are more divided than ever, this seems impossible. And as we have moved further and further into these times, I have found myself attending a church where people have beliefs about these worldly issues that fall more in line with what I believe. But the truth is that we all attend a worship group on Sunday to learn how to love more. To truly love ourselves and our neighbors. I believe that we are all doing this, those of us who support Trump, and those of us who do not. What would happen if we were all in the same room together and we put politics on the shelf? Would we find that love does not have a political party? Election Day just two days away, I think it is very hard to put our views on the shelf, and it may be pertinent that we do not. But love does not differentiate between the president, the school shooter, nor the other folks in the synagogue. We all look the same. We are all deserving.
Be well. Vote well. Amen.