Sunday, July 8, 2012
Pain body
Ekart Tolle talks a lot about the “pain body” being a place a state that is difficult to prosper and grow out of if we live most of our lives around it. Meaning avoiding it or dwelling in it or ignoring it which can keep it present, is a tricky thing because our spiritual growth depends on our managing our states and especially our response to the proverbial wounds all of it complex. So I was thinking about the African American story all of us have a long historical connection to deep pain and torture and abuse and more when it comes to being a person of color. So it doesn’t surprise me that we have such a disadvantage when it comes to managing our lives in other words every person of color no matter how affluent deals with a history that is difficult and maybe presently difficult so couple that with societal disadvantages no matter what anyone says it has NEVER been a level playing field in any sector of society historically or even today. With all of this in mind I sit in awe of the monumental healing salve President Obama initial victory means and what it means to those of us with this reality. It is deep, very, very deep so it makes the resistance to him extra sensitive a familiar cut into the already wounded and war worn soul of black America. The agenda of the far right with the bogus voter fraud laws which are designed to suppress the black vote makes this election personal, very. I am realizing that my very own race I happen to straddle three (complicated) still my own people have to fight falling into the depression that can overcome us just by virtue of the “struggle”…I also realize I have been impatient with my own family for not being bigger bolder thinkers because it takes great courage and evolution to be able to face the “pain body” and push past it to grow in our thinking and innovate. The average women of color have so much against her how can she afford the luxury of imagining more? Dreaming is a luxury in some instances especially when you work three shifts. In order to evolve we have to be strong and have courage and face pain body and push past it. In my life time it looks good for all of us and I know we can do it no matter what happens we must!
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Quick story. One of my best friends in college was of Russion Jewish decent. While he was understanding of Black issues, his father disliked anyone saying that White people had an advantage of any kind in this country. He came here as an immigrant child, and he scraped and struggled to become a wealthy and prominent businessman in a major city. My friend, explained to me that his father had chased the American dream with all his heart, and every bit of his sweat, blood and effort. His father played the game by the rules he was given, beat out all the opposition he went against, and won. If his father was to “find out” that the game was fixed in any way, it would shatter his perception of who he thought he was and what he had accomplished. He said it would mean his father’s life was a lie.
I tell that story because I know that you have a myriad of races and ethnicities that follow you. Although that is one man’s story, it is one I wouldn’t have known or understood if his son didn’t explain it to me in terms I can understand. So for those who may think that this is just a Black woman complaining because things aren’t as easy as she wants them to be, rather than that they are actually harder than they should be, you may not quite be able to understand the perspective. When Black people say that there was never a level playing field, it neither means that White people cheated to get ahead, nor does it mean that they didn’t work as hard as they could. The average White person is like my buddys’ father… honest and hard working. A good example is what is actually being said can be found in the career of baseball pitcher Satchel Paige. Paige was the best pitcher in the Negro Leagues. When he came to the Major League at age 42, he was considered one of the five best pitchers there. Had he been allowed to compete in his prime, all the record books would have been changed. Bob Feller was considered the best of that time, and Feller said that Paige was better than him. But Feller played the game by the rules he was given, beat out all the opposition he went against, and won… the field was just uneven.
Anyway… yeah, Black people are sensitive like nerve endings on a second degree burn. But going from slavery to Jim Crow to redlining, DWB, and voter fraud has kept our nerve endings kinda toasty. Hopefully folks can understand that.
Well I think to say "we " complain is convenient, an excuse to not look at historical fact. once you do it is even more crushing and as horrific as Germany and the death camps were to the Jew. I have a friend who is not ethnic and very affluent who gets mad at me for bringing up the un-levelness of it all. It bothers her and sounds like you say complaining and whiny. Sure I have had plenty of opportunities and some I have squandered and some I have used to the fullest. It still doesn't take away the facts and the honest equations if it were math it would be stacked numerically against us....just saying.
Oh and on the surface a Russian Jew is still not Brown , Black or yellow for that matter.
I'm not disagreeing at all, just trying to keep the "See, there they go again complaining. If they don't like it they can go back to Africa" comments from changing the focus of your point. I respect my friend's father for what he accomplished, but he didn't compete on a level playing field. Like most U.S. citizens, he doesn't have a historical perspective, he has an American perspective, and thus he can't understand anything that doesn't fit into our narrative. That is the American experience... history is our-story, and anything else is a lie and/or a threat.
I'm the son of a sharecropper and only three generations away from slavery... and I'm only 51. I've got plenty of stories about the KKK, DWB, marches, dogs, and succeeding over all that in my family. I've told White people about my brother being chained in the basement of the county jail and beaten with a billy club until his ribs were broken, only to be told, "well, he must have done something to deserve it." The concept that you cannot deserve treatment that is against the law from law officials just doesn't register with them. I look forward to them becoming bigger, bolder thinkers, but I'm expecting it to happen in my lifetime less and less. MLK had the best idea, link our issues to theirs, and ours will get addressed as a side effect.
The "pain body" sure sounds like a proper discription of an underlying ailment of black people (as a whole) today. We must realize that the HELL blacks experienced as slaves was so horrible that we still are bleeding and suffering much pain.
We lost not only millions and milions of family members. We lost things that no other races have. We lost our LANGUAGE, our identifying country, and most of all we were separated from living as a human for so so so long. With no other place to go we were forced to accept the American idea of the Level Playing Field. "You are now free Mr. Black Man, we are now equals."
So as time goes on, we find out the truth, the playing field was set up without the money being included, but yet and still we generated, trillions of $$$ through free labor over hundreds of years. So let's be honest, the black situation is like no other. No excuse whatsoever for the murder and hatred we see today in our Black communities, but we have never realized an important part of our "pain body."
Imagine that Europeons, Central and South Americans, Indians, Orientals, could not distinguish a specific country or tribe of origin. That would create a very mixed up race of people.
We must as you say RAE-RAE, face, educate, try to rectify , and push past it, (that terrible cancer known as the "pain body").
So that we can gain each others trust and love. Maybe then we will become more of a unit working together, instead of the internal black on black war we see today. I am in the Chicago area and it is pitiful how we devalue the lives of our own people. Not only on the street level, the jealousy and envy are literally killing us, both male and female thru all levels. But I do believe that once President Obama gets some time he will address the situation.
There are definitely Black people who have excelled, especially on the sports field, we are just built like that, the true test about the playing field concerns the $$$$$ and businesses that were not included when it was presented to us.
Since White people designed the playing field they did CHEAT to keep a hold on what was already distributed. I can'even begin to compile the monetary assets that black slaves contributed to the playing field through our free labor.
I am certainly not saying White people are bad at all. It was really White people who had our back as we escaped from the bad White people. God bless them..
All things being what they are, we still have to do the best we can,and help each other overcome this madness.
Reading these comments makes me realize that my "little" blog can be powerful and very healing. Thank you for adding to the point of my piece and keeping it deep. I am humbled by the beauty, the eloquence. It is my education and it is leading/nourishing my soul as it makes the journey to wholeness. Blessings and love to you.
Il est très beau votre commentaire. Sachez qu'il y a des personnes, dont je fais partie qui vous suivent sans trop se manifester (du à un mauvais anglais vous le savez) mais vos commentaires que je traduit à chaque fois, en plus de m'apprendre au mieux votre langue, apporte connaissance et réfléxion et c'est ce qui fait grandir le monde!
Georgia (frenchwoman)
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