Compassion seems to have taken a back-seat in the souls of
our society; people are unwilling to care about how things may affect others
and are more worried about how it only affects them. Is your car really more important than a relationship
with a family member? Is your “right way” of doing things really the “right
way?” Do you really think that speaking down to someone to get your point
across is the best way to communicate with someone else?
This past Labor day I worked hard not to break down in front
of people that needed to see someone be strong for them but also express
compassion and love to them for where they are at. The Caravan for Peace headed by Mexican Poet
Javier Sicilia came into Chicago. We
were given the opportunity (Ramiro, Alma, Chris, and Guillermo) to do Peace
circles and facilitate conversations with people that have lost loved ones in
the drug war in Mexico. One by one the
beads that served as the sacred symbol were passed along, many fumbled with it
in their hands and others squeezed them tightly with both hands. The beads are a Rosary that was given to me and
brought from the Philippines hand made out of wood. As each person spoke I had to do some
translating because others did not understand Spanish so as I did I had to
repeat their words of pain and suffering.
I had to speak words that I never thought would come out of my mouth on
how their loved ones were decapitated, shot, and set a blaze and many other
horrible actions. The beads came around
to the last person in the circle that hadn’t spoken yet and as it got closer I
could see her nervousness once the beads were in her hand she began to
cry. She said, “my mother has been
missing for 8 months and we don’t know where she is…I’m an only child and all I
have left is my father…” I had to translate what she had just finished saying
and it torn into my heart. Even with
that story and coming into the US to go cross country in a charter bus she
still seemed to remain strong.
On any given day we complain about how slow the internet is,
the wait time for the bus, the copier at work not working, the coffee not being
fresh enough, and once our day is done and we click on the news we get annoyed very
easily. We see that several people were
shot between the time we got off of work went to the store and got home and our
first reaction is annoyance. What’s
interesting is that if the first thing on the news was celebrity gossip about
who is screwing who behind someone’s back we raise the volume and pay close
attention. Where is our compassion for the things that matter?
Do you not feel that you should have compassion for
others? Why not? And if you do think you
have compassion then I dare to ask then why don’t you have enough of it? I do apologize for the way that may sound but
I do spend a lot of time observing people and I sincerely do not see the amount
of compassion that should exist in our society.
There’s a young social worker out there that believes they are saving
the world simply because they have their Masters in Social work with a license
to recommend drug therapy. They live in
a bubble and seem to always be happy but deep down inside they are not happy at
all. That social worker may very well
have some deep issues that they have not dealt with because it’s too painful
and it is possible that others may have not shown them compassion but instead complacency
for their willingness to NOT deal with the issue.
Not to say that social workers should be free of problems
but at the VERY and I do mean VERY least they should have the ability to
confront their issues head on. I don’t
think it is a lot to ask for considering that the issues that social workers
have always dealt with have been some of the hardest. Clergy are also that other group that has to
be prepared to deal with issues and not only theirs but of many others and
usually these clergy people can’t walk down to an office and have a quick
supervision with a supervisor to see if they did OK. Clergy find a spot and kneel down and go into
a deep prayer, some take up drinking, others may smoke, and many more do
both. There was a Catholic Priest that I
worked with a long time ago and he was a heavy drinker and loved it too and I
asked him why he drank so much and his eyes filled up with tears and said “sometimes
it just too much..” then he raised his glass and asked for another drink.
Compassion is lacking in our society because we place ALL of
the burden on the very few and as those very few carry that there are others
kicking at their knees trying to make them buckle. There
are people that say they love everyone because God commands them to do so but
is that really love? Can we continue to
lie to ourselves like this? Would it be
easier to have people just proclaim that they really don’t give a shit about
certain people and could some of us be prepared to accept that from others?
I’d like to believe that there is compassion for everyone
from everyone but these days that light seems to become dimmer…sometimes it
feels like a Sci-Fi movie where there’s two powerful characters entangled fighting
each other as they both plummet to the ground in an epic end all. I’m not trying to sound apocalyptic it is merely
where we stand right now and it can actually get worse really soon, will you
then have compassion?
Peace/AMOR
Gerardo
