We Are All Refugees...

Years ago in my former life as founding director of a non-profit serving the hungry and marginalized in Monterey County, California, there were phases of community interest: for a short while, all the rage was "feeding the hungry"... then later, interest moved on into "ending homelessness"... from there, it was suddenly health care for migrant farm workers... and then... But when folks discovered that solutions required a dogged-spirit of "I will not stop until this is taken care of", both the problem and the activism lost its sex appeal. And then, in the big picture of things, when awareness dawns that potential solutions will rub up against the "systems" that virtually require the suffering of untold millions of human beings: it becomes, "What is one person supposed to do?" So it is with the world-wide refugee crisis...

Here is a practical example: for a very significant portion of the land mass of Planet Earth, the available groundwater is nearly depleted. No water. No food. No work. No home. "No way am I going to just sit here and watch my children die. We have to leave!" Under these conditions, who among us would not get up and go? Now, we can add to the problem of access to water, the problem of national economies serving only the desires of the oligarchs who make decisions on policy according to their "needs": then throw in dictators, organized crime, multinational banks and corporations, the weapons industry and wars: and we have our current world situation: ah and, we must not forget that access to water is not the only problem being dished out by climate change... And wouldn't you know it, but there is still more: all the politicians and religious leaders who like their access to the halls of privilege and profit...

To write "We are all refugees" is not enough: more needs to be written, like "a very great many of the so-called leaders of nations, religions, and businesses are flat-out insane". Quite a few of them can now only "think" in terms of walls, ethnic or religious identity, and national security: but there are no walls high enough or security strong enough, or religions sacred enough to protect us from ourselves. For the simple truth is, we are all refugees: and we are fleeing from truth...

Everything -- absolutely everything -- boils down to the words of Cain: "Am I my brother's keeper?" In other words, "Why the fuck should I give a rat's ass about anyone other than myself?" Truth is, on the other hand, very simple in a different way: your brother, your sister, is your true self: the "I" that I claim as "me" is entirely contingent upon the well-being every other "I". This truth precedes every other "possible" truth: why? Because, in the words of the Jewish philosopher Simone Weil, "We were created by Love, for Love, to become Love." It is precisely by loving-in-action that we give birth to the Holy One in our hearts. It is by loving that Love Is... 

By loving and through loving, we will finally begin to unshackle the fear that dominates our cultures: fear wants walls-guns-and-bombs. Fear wants the exploitation of the earth and the oppression of women. Fear wants religions that offer exclusive paths into the Divine. Fear wants systems of domination that allow a few people to prosper with their unlimited profits, privileges, and power.  Fear wants sexy, silent, women. Fear wants to rape children. Fear doesn't give a shit about destroying all life upon this planet -- for just the brief span of one life of ease... 

So, which way forward? It should be obvious that we have to change our minds! We have to accustom our thoughts to truth: every "other" is our very self: whatsoever that we think, say, or do to anyone, we do to our very self: and exactly so, we do to the Holy One. No difference! This is the rEvolution that needs to happen. More: whatsoever that we want done to and for us, we need to do the same for Mother Earth: we need to rapidly move from a system of exploitation and consumption into sustainability and then beyond into planetary regeneration. Yes, there does need to be organized resistance to injustice, inequality, exploitation, and oppression: but the resistance must be mindful of "as the means, so the end" (Gandhi). We need to live now the way in which we want the world to become. We need to cultivate beauty in compassion. Finally, we need "tribes" to rediscover the prophets of nonviolence, compassion, equality, and justice and form intentional communities who will live as the vanguard of a renewed humanity: communities that will embody and educate for a culture and world without fear.