Cultural Immersion (January 12th) …
January 12 – Cultural Immersion: Today, choose to take a trip into a neighborhood where you become a “minority” &/or a “stranger”. Though many believe such an action to be “dangerous”, if you go and attend a church there or choose to be a patron of a store (barbershops are great for this), you will come to no harm … Remember to do more than merely “dash in”. Take your time. Engage others in conversation, asking them what their lives are like in their neighborhood. In doing so, you will inevitably find that “people are people” and that the vast majority of them are Good-Hearted. Enlarging your “larger family” in this way is a priceless exercise. Bonus Activity: For the truly courageous, head into a “dangerous part of town” during the day today, perform an anonymous Good Deed, and then depart.
I am very familiar with today’s task, as I have gone through several recent life-periods where I not only entered “bad neighborhoods”, but was actually a resident thereof; where I not only met “dangerous people”, but I was mistaken for one myself.
Before engaging my “Experiment with Truth” back in 2003-2005, I too had reasonable fears of any part of any town that the general populace deemed to be “dangerous”. I saw these poverty-stricken places as regions of violence,
and anarchy.
And the more I listened to rumors and the more I watched the news, the more my fear of these places escalated.
Like many of my friends, I developed a clear vision of the peace that typified the “safe neighborhoods” where I wanted to live,
as well as the fear that permeated the “dangerous places” that I wanted to avoid.
I knew the kind of “good neighbors” I wanted to have living near me,
and I knew all about the “bad people” I wanted to avoid.
And while it is understandable that many want to either arm themselves or erect walls between themselves and society’s “dangerous elements”, human history has clearly shown us that these answers are actually counterproductive. Not only do they increase the likelihood that we will come to actual harm, but they also slowly entrench a base-arrogance that steadily erodes our friendships as well.
What we seem to have forgotten (or have possibly simply avoided) is the uncomfortable Truth that the people who live in such “bad neighborhoods” are still people; that even those of them who do commit crimes against others, do so not because they are “evil”, but because they are desperate and afraid.
In essence, we have forgotten that people are not their neighborhoods; that they are not their attitudes; that they are not their behaviors. Despite any “rough exterior” they might be showing, every person yearns to Love as much as he/she yearns to be loved.
I learned first-hand while living “on the streets” (for almost two years) that even the “thug” who is behaving most aggressively responds peacefully to acts of kindness; that no person ever desires to “bite the hand that feeds”.
And yet, for each of us to receive this very important Awakening, it must be experienced. And the only way to experience it is to actively confront the fear of it. Even if we are too frightened to do so alone, we must somehow go forth into the neighborhoods of our “enemies” and choose to See their residents anew — we must choose to see them as brothers & sisters, not as enemies or threats.
Though I will admit that this is one of the most challenging exercises in the entire Calendar, it is therefore also one of the most powerful.
see You when I see you …
… and until then, Be Now!
Scaughdt
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