Don't Go Back to Sleep

ANGIE BUCHANAN·SATURDAY, MARCH 16, 2019·6 MINUTES

Yesterday, a madman decided that he was justified in his hatred - that his whiteness entitled him to murder 49, innocent, unarmed, people while they prayed. Some will claim that he was 'misguided', poisoned by some shadow movement that is leading our youth astray. Some will say that he is mentally ill, some will blame lack of gun control, or shake their heads, filing this away as yet another aberration in an otherwise peaceful, loving world. None of these things will be true.

This carefully planned atrocity, this act of terrorism was not a solo act by a deranged mind; it is the product of the underbelly of our global society, and it is currently in mass production. Over the course of time, while we’ve been sleeping, (and then singing Kumbya to one another when we were awake and not trying to eat each other…) we have, in our distraction, allowed ourselves to be rolled onto our backs into “the upside down” of Stranger Things.

The underbelly wriggles with delight in the warmth of the sun; its pus-filled lesions teeming with maggots, some seeking the light that will grow their wings, and their venomous stingers. Others, burrowing deeper into rotted flesh; gluttons, eating away at the substance of things – so far in, we can almost feel the gnawing vibrations under our toes.

As with any infection, there is safety in numbers; the maggots howl a summons to their kindred, that both incites them, and sets them free. And in this freedom, they seethe with hatred. They hate the ones they perceive to be the oppressors of their authority, the deniers of their entitlement, and they call the names of the ones who inspire them. They manifest their superiority by building walls as monuments to white nationalism; walls built upon history, walls built upon a foundation of the spending of over $6 trillion by the US alone, on wars that have killed 500,000 people since 9/11. Wars against “those not like us” – and they copycat the threats of violence, mirroring their heroes, the ones who divide us as a means by which to line their already stuffed, but insatiable pockets, with lies, fear, and ill-gotten wealth. All this achieved using threats soaked in the self-righteous brew of democracy. This is not a new movement by far – but an old trope dressed in new robes, rising to the surface once more in an act as old as time.

“I have the support of the police, the support of the military, the support of Bikers for Trump,” he said. “I have the tough people, but they don’t play it tough until they go to a certain point, and then it would be very bad, very bad.” - Donald Trump

This is the pestilence prophesied in all the world’s holy books, and by the mystics, seers, and prophets writing fiction, reading stars, and divining dreams; these are the locusts that strip all the sustenance from the fields and claim the lives of our first-borns as we allow them to be sacrificed upon the altars of war. This is the warning cast by “Cassandras” all over the world; from the smallest incidents of calling out male white privilege in small religious organizations, to the more serious exposure of predatory sexual abuse in the holy places, work places, and now, even seated on our SCOTUS. We cannot say we didn’t see it coming.

But - there is a shift in energy afoot. I can say with a decent amount of confidence that there has never been a time in our recorded past quite like this. We can give in to despair, imagining ourselves screaming into the void, like Cassandra, or we can get cohesive; cohesive in our politics, cohesive in our persistence to right this, to stop the infighting and work together to roll this underbelly back into the dirt and slime where it belongs.

We can agree to let go of the conviction, the need to be right that clouds our vision, in favor of embracing the anger and the passion that moves us to justice, fairness and equity for all living things - that moves us toward rebalancing, finding our place in the world – a place where we do not live as “me” on this Earth but as “us on this planet.”

The predicament we find ourselves in today – the existence of the infection of toxic humanity, of the super-rich, of the white supremacist, of the patriarchal authority, is the result of our failure to do so in the past.

“Those who do not learn from the past, are doomed to repeat it.”

Over and over, and over again.

The fruit of the trees planted by recent generations that has ripened, and that we are eating now, is bitter. There will come a day when the fruit from the trees we have planted ripens. We may never have the chance to eat from those trees but, we have a duty, a responsibility to make sure that fruit is sweet for our children, for those who come behind us, those who are already becoming our teachers in ways and to heights we may never have imagined for ourselves.

These are the children of beautiful skin, black, brown, pale, and all those exquisite shades that language is too dull for, the children whose myriad ways of connection to things larger than themselves, is no threat to any other way, the children from who we have borrowed this time, and been untrustworthy in our management of it.

We have the opportunity to get quiet, to listen to ancient whispers, in our blood and from our planet, and to the voices of the future as they see with a clarity we do not possess. We have the opportunity to shine in the darkness so that others in the void can see us and be inspired to shine, too. We can summons our own allies, and we can weave for ourselves, a joyous, inclusive fate that refuses to be limited by the thirst for power.

USA peeps - remember this come election time. Get quiet. Gather strength. Then act. Act willfully, with intention. Step away from the microscope and the telescope. Use a wide angle lens with which to view the world. Let the younger ones lead. Get behind them. They are stronger, smarter, and have more at stake. Be the nucleus, be the center of power, pushing outward, in solidarity with, not in opposition to. Let go of the attachment that drives you to act in haste, and in ways that are spiteful, not helpful. Our very lives depend on our agreement and our ability to do this.

The Beast has been unmasked. Now we know what we’re fighting, and what we’re fighting for. There is no shortcut. Steady the course.

Stay awake!

“The breezes at dawn have secrets to tell you
Don't go back to sleep!
You must ask for what you really want.
Don't go back to sleep!
People are going back and forth
across the doorsill where the two worlds touch,
The door is round and open
Don't go back to sleep!” -Rumi