Evil or Good or both?

People desire to separate their worlds into polarities of dark and light, ugly and beautiful, good and evil, right and wrong, inside and outside. Polarities serve us in our learning and growth, but as souls we are all.

Joy Page - American Actress

When I was a little girl I made a promise to God to live, perfectly, so I could take friends and family members place in hell, if they weren’t saved by the time they died. My view of God was really one of hellfire. If you didn’t follow His commands and take Jesus as your savior, you were going to Hell. My little 12 year old heart’s intention was from love – and a ton of fear. I was going to be their back up plan if Jesus couldn’t save them. Sweet and innocently arrogant.

The major problem with that one “little” promise was how it shaped my world view and controlled my behavior until I reached an age, sadly not until a few years into college, where I was forced to face the reality of what it meant, in lieu of who I honestly found myself to be. I would not be able to save family and friends because I had to confess I was one of the most vile and evil sinners of all – a homosexual. Gasp. But, that is a whole different blog…

Basically I developed a really harsh, limited, and black and white view of the world. People were either good or evil. There was no such thing as grey. The grey aspect was part of the darkness trying to seduce us away from the light of God. Everything I witnessed, experienced, thought about, and talked about was colored by this world view. It was not a kind view of the world. It was depressing to see all the evil rampant (per my perception, not necessarily reality). I preferred to be dead and in heaven than alive on this dark earth. Yet, even with many attempts, I stayed because I promised to sacrifice myself for those I loved, if they hadn’t accepted Jesus.

There were many lessons in life that I believe God brought my way to clear and straighten out my twisted and dark vision of this world. Many people I met who made me question the legitimacy of my world view. 

And most recently an even deeper lesson has been percolating within me. In people I would consider the evilest of people, they too contain the light of God. They too can show love, as limited as it may be. They too strive to make things right, as counter-intuitive to me it may seem. And those I encountered in my personal life that I once called evil, well there are others who have seen their good side. Could it be that we really are a mixture of these polarities and depending on who we mix with, one side may become more prevalent than the other in their company?

Can there be people who, naturally inclined to be kind, generous, loving, bring out the worst in another naturally kind, generous, and loving person whereby unintentionally causing pain to those they love? Maybe it isn’t about one being evil and the other good. Maybe it really is we are all a mix of evil and good (with a dose of Karma thrown in). And instead of calling it evil and good, maybe call it our animal nature vs soul nature. Maybe there is a scale, like the Kinsey scale of sexuality, which measures the strength/visibility of the light of God within a person. Some are on one end of the scale with their light more hidden like on a dark cloudy day, but the light is still underneath the clouds. Some may be in the middle, where it is a semi-sunny or grey sky,  then we have the people on the other end with more sun shining than clouds covering their light.

For all those I judged and called evil, my sincerest apologies. I was wrong. We all carry the divine qualities and light of God and all deserve basic respect for that. 

A Plea for Peaceful Protests

I don’t expect what I write and you are about to read to change anyone’s mind. This may be seen, by some, as an exercise in futility and for others it may piss them off; however I see it as an attempt to put some positive, love filled energy out into the Universe in hopes it permeates some of the darkness that has descended on our nation. 

I understand why some of you are protesting. I totally support your right to protest, as well as Trump supporters right to protest. What I DO NOT SUPPORT, and pray we all can rise above, is the name calling, the destruction of property, the violence, and the hanging and burning any sort of effigy whether of Trump or Obama or anyone else for that matter.

Change born from violence begets more violence. 

I believe the majority of protesters are doing it peacefully and I know that there are some who join a protest to incite the group to violence. There are people out there who purposely go to protests to amp them up and bring them to violence. These people don’t care about why people are protesting, they just get a high off of inciting a crowd to violence.

Please do not be fuel for their impure motives. 

By all means, protest. By all means let your voices be heard.

By all means work for the change you want to see. By all means defend yourself.

Please, though, I beg of you remember we can get nowhere if every act of violence is reacted to with a higher act of violence. Now is the time, as Michelle Obama says, “We go higher”. I am not just saying this to the Democrats, but to the Republicans as well. 

Instead of competing to see who can beat each other down more violently, let’s compete to see who can be gentler and kinder to each other and who is willing to bring the olive branch first. And by this I am not saying we have to agree with each other. What I am trying to remind us all of is that we are all together in this and must live together, whoever is president, whenever a new election is held. Just because you may like orange sherbet and I prefer chocolate ice cream does not mean I am better than you. It just means we have different preferences related to how we want to live our life. 

And a reminder – preferences are way different than prejudices. 

There is no place in America for holding people down and discriminating based on color, creed, sexual orientation, disability, etc. That must stop and that is part of what is being protested and needs to be protested. 

Now is the time to take a stand for protecting our minority brothers, sisters, and family. If I see a person, friend or stranger or even foe, being harassed or abused by someone because they are black, Muslim, liberal or conservative, gay, disabled, etc. I will step in and take a stand. I can use my white skin card to help protect others and I ask for others to join me in this. I have friends and family who voted for Trump and I believe they too want to stop the abuse and harassment. 

Let us stand together for love and peace because we are all humans and because we ALL deserve to be treated with respect, dignity, and honor.

So by all means, protest and protect. And I beg and encourage that we all do it from a place of love where we seek peace for all because we all belong to the human race.