I understand that I will never understand, however, I stand with you.
The atrocity and injustice that is George Floyd’s murder cannot go unmarked or unnoticed. It doesn’t matter which political or religious persuasion you have, violence against an innocent person is simply not right.
I feel ashamed, saddened and disheartened that there are still Human Beings like Derek Chauvin in this world, people who are still built this way, still think this way. However, I would surely go mad if I kept thinking the only way to win was to change their minds, change their behaviours, when the only person I can change, have any kind of real change with, is ME. The only person You can change is YOU. And together, We, as members of the Human Race, stand together and say:
Enough is goddam enough.
I am, of course, completely sick to my stomach that this is still be happening in 2020. IT’S 2020 FFS, CAPS LOCK FOR SHOUTING….. 56 years since the civil rights act of 1964.
Whilst this doesn’t happen on my doorstep, I am not naive to the fact that this is STILL one of many everyday occurrences of injustice for our BIPOC brothers and sisters around the world. I am sickened that feeling safe, a basic human right, is STILL not a given for them simply due to the pigment of their skin. I can never fully understand how this feels as I sit behind the veil and safety of my white skin, but I do bear witness.
So, what can We do?
You might be feeling powerless, frustrated or angry as you watch the protests and uprising unfolds. You might feel ineffective and small, like “what can one person really do?”. To that, I want to offer this perspective:
That as individuals it is within our power to take control of our thinking, to educate ourselves and elevate our consciousness. If we all knew our true nature, that we are all connected, then such atrocities could never happen. I am You, You are Me, We are all One.
As people become more conscious, we might stop being Me, and start being Us, and move from Me to We. We cannot do that while we are in an egoic, naive, selfish state, in our own worlds.
When you start to look outside of yourself, care for others and for the world, you begin to shift your mindset, raise your vibration. As that happens you transcend limitations, find different layers of yourself and capacities that we all have within us.
Kindness has no colour.
Compassion has no colour.
Generosity has no colour.
Moving from a “Me” to a “We” mindset
In order to leave the ego behind, you need to move the needle from “Me” to “We”. Here are a few suggestions/strategies of how You could move from a Me to a We mindset, both at home and in your business:
Amplify the voices that need to be heard
Be generous with your time, volunteer
Donate your money to causes that need it
Bring people together to facilitate knowledge sharing
Create and hold space for dialogue to discuss issues and challenges
Talk in terms of “We” and “Us”
Be inclusive and diverse
Stand by your values — state your anti-racist stand-point in your personal or business values, and make it clear you will not tolerate or do business with anyone who has any issue with that, whatsoever.
Using lockdown to our advantage
Lockdown is like a strange kind of purgatory. A No Man’s Land between Then, and What Is To Come.
In this No Man’s Land, there is no precedent, there is no rule book. It’s a magical in-between-land in which we are all creating a new normal every day (and by god it can change fast).
We are ALL experiencing this transition together, and in our own ways — never before in our lifetime has there been such a globally unifying event, to the point where “How are you” has become such a loaded question.
Life sometimes put things in our path that gives us pause and reflect. That thing can sometimes be so sobering that it makes everything else suddenly so pale by comparison, and rendering everything else as utterly trivial.
Life put Covid-19 in our path, and for a while, that’s been the narrative — it has given us all the unifying opportunity, nay the permission, to turn the spotlight on our lives. To assess what’s not working, maybe even hit CTRL-Alt-Del and re-write the whole playbook. To cut away the detritus mindsets from our lives.
Then, the murder of George Floyd happened, and this put another sobering and unifying opportunity in our path. It’s saying “Hey, take a look at this”: an unjust act of sheer brutality, so public and so potent, it cannot be comprehended by anyone with a conscience or a heart, but once seen, it cannot be unseen.
We, as members of the Human Race, must stand together in solidarity and say Enough is Enough. This is not right. We do not want this in our World. Eyes wide open. Not in our name.
Thank You Marie Kondo
I’ve noticed in the last few days that there are a lot of boxes now sitting on peoples doorsteps, containing various gubbins that are no longer required — a result of many a cathartic cleanse and decluttering of UK households, no doubt. Thanks Marie Kondo.
It struck me as an apt metaphor or symbol for the phase of lockdown we’re in right now. That in this No Man’s Land we have cleansed, purged and chucked out that which no longer serves us, so we can emerge stronger, leaner, lighter on the other side, ready to hit life running with a clear focus, mentally, physically and emotionally.
That has to include binning, once and for all, the old and outdated concepts that have no place in modern society. The stuff that, quite frankly, should have been thrown out years ago and we can’t imagine why it’s still here at all.
Maybe your older relatives have been holding onto it for sentimental reasons, I don’t know, but that sh*t needs to be chucked out. Making sure we clear the decks of any blinkered ways of thinking and outdated ideologies, making sure we leave that as a relic of the past once and for all, and move on with our eyes wide open.
Sure, donate your gubbins of stuff and things to charity, clear the household decks.
And then, have a think about how you can move your needle from Me to We, for all of Us.
In love and solidarity. Namaste.