Affirming unity
The 2024 Presidential race is on! Biden, who supports inclusive democracy, is the oldest candidate ever, walks slowly, stutters, sometimes talks too fast, yet oversaw a robust economic recovery from a devastating pandemic without a recession. Trump, who supports fascist autocracy, is an oath breaking insurrectionist, showing declining mental capacity steeped in retribution and petty grievance, already convicted of fraud with three more criminal trials in process, supported by a party that wants to “remove voting rights for women”. The difference is clear, but some people think this will be a close election.
With complete disregard, the Earth inexorably moves around the Sun. The vernal equinox is this week, the beginning of Spring for the northern hemisphere, and a time of renewal. Trees are bursting into flower. It feels joyful to be alive as nature affirms our common unity.
Everything material is composed of identical neutrons, protons, and electrons, which combine as only 92 different elemental atoms. Of these, 99 percent of the human body mass is composed of just 6 elements (oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon, calcium, and phosphorus).
These elements form just four different nucleic acids, coded in groups of three in DNA chromosomes to define 22 amino acids, which can assemble into more than 20,000 proteins. These proteins are the foundation for more than 2 million different species, with uncounted population totals, including 8.1 billion humans.
However, waking consciousness is only 10% of our awareness. Therefore, we don't experience these fundamental material and biological commonalities, perceiving only surfaces, certain in our belief we are differentiated, enduring objects.
But our bodies are actually dynamic assemblies, changing every moment. On average, we produce our weight in new cells every 80 days, with the rate of change unevenly distributed. Our stomach quickly digests itself, being completely replaced every few days. Skin takes a few months, organs a few years, and bones take a decade. Overall, we are less like enduring objects, and more like whirlpools of biological expression, constantly different, yet recognizably the same.
This paradoxical relationship, fundamentally united, yet individually distinct, is being ignored at the political level, which has polarized into hardened definitions of differences, threatening the survival of us all. The superficial stance of “winner take all” is not new, and has afflicted humanity for thousands of years, with increasingly adverse impact. Yet throughout time, the notion of our connection has been recognized and taught.
Our current situation can be understood as a great awakening, with a growing experience of the deeper connections, and the transcendence of historic patterns of hate and division. This is the falling away of the old order, a kind of molting, where old grievances are brought to awareness to be healed. Another image is the refinement of metal, which is heated to a degree where the light weight impurities can float to the surface to be removed, leaving only the core strength of the material.
Most of us have been traumatized, operating under obsolete limitations of “who we are.” But each moment is a fresh opportunity to retell our story, much as our body constantly renews itself. We are being challenged to look at what people are doing, not just what they are saying, and compare that to our inner truth to see if that is in accord with our social and individual needs and desires. Does it serve to expand and empower us, or does it serve to contract us in fear?
I am a spiritual person, believing and experiencing that I am part of something much larger than my limited self. I am especially offended by the perversion of religious doctrine to justify domination and punitive retribution, presuming the speaker has the “truth” handed down to them alone.
Perhaps the biggest mistake of the Christian doctrine is the idea that Christ was THE son of God, rather than A son of God, demonstrating human potential. Opening to that consideration of inclusive sacred nature changes everything. It is my life journey to explore the extent of my humanity, and live it as best I can. That is everyone's birthright as a human.
Today, consider treating every living being as “kin”, arising from the same material source, sharing the same basic DNA code, constantly changing their form as dynamic beings. This is our heritage. This is who we came here to be. This is the society we want to leave for our descendants.