We’re in a difficult period of history. Most of us aren’t really sure how it all happened. Future generations will surely see it more clearly than we do. As you look around the world, there is significant division among people. In many cases, governments seem to no longer have the interest of their citizens as a concern. Instead, special interests control many governments and leaders. Other leaders have simply taken power and seem to be out of control. In the meantime, ordinary folks in many countries are finding that their lives are increasingly difficult. This is happening in the Americas, Asia, Africa, Europe, and Australia to varying degrees.
Some of us are able to participate in public demonstrations or send letters to our elected officials to advocate change. For others, speaking against a leader leads to imprisonment. In many places, there is a palpable sense of frustration and helplessness which people now experience. As I talk with some of my friends, we’ve noticed how easily people react negatively to day to day events, often responding with aggression and anger. We’ve talked about trying to be more intentional about the way treat the people we encounter so as to not add to a stressful world. Yes, ordinary warmth and friendliness can be very important to people who experience frustration and alienation.
We’re not the first people in history who have experienced life as out of control and with politicians working against us. For better or worse, this is the time in which we live. No matter how the political tensions came about, this is the only time we have the opportunity to savor the gift of life. While we can work to overcome injustice and toward building a society where all people are treated with equality, we can’t allow others to rob us of our inner peace. When we lose the grounding that enables us to be compassionate, caring, and vibrant people, we’ve allowed the purveyors of discord to win.
In this matter, I’ve been inspired by a wise woman who worked for the abolition of slavery and for women’s rights in the mid-1800’s. Isabella Baufree was born in Upstate New York at the end of the 18th Century. Her first language was Dutch; she later learned English. She escaped slavery with her daughter and went to court to obtain the return of her son who was taken into slavery. She was the first Black woman to win such a case against a white man.
Isabella had a deep sense of faith and believed that she was called to create a society in which all people were treated as equal. She understood this belief as “God’s truth,” distinguishing it from the way the Bible was used to support slavery and inequality among races and by gender. Responding to her sense of faith, in mid-life she changed her name to Sojourner Truth. Her life was to travel, to sojourn, and speak the truth. So she did, speaking to women’s rights organizations in the mid-1850’s as well as helping to recruit Black men for the Union army during the Civil War. Surely, as one of the world’s great activist, she put herself on the front line in the midst of very difficult times.
What I find most inspiring about Sojourner Truth is this: she never lost sight of the importance of living a way that is grounded. She knew that inner peace and joy were to be coveted beyond anything else and she savored these qualities. It was out of this awareness that she’s recorded to have said, “Life is a hard battle anyway. If we laugh and sing a little as we fight the good fight of freedom, it makes it all go easier. I will not allow my life’s light to be determined by the darkness around me.”
Indeed, we cannot allow our inner light, our joy, our compassion, our sense of peace to be determined by the darkness of our times. Like the many witnesses to truth and freedom who have gone before us, we need to stay rooted in what gives our lives meaning and purpose. In doing so, working for change truly becomes working for something better.
Photo by emiliokuffer on Foster.com/ CC BY-SA