When human life is lost,
we all actually lose
October 20, 2023
Dear Beautiful Humans,
Across the MCAN network, we are guided by the statement, “Until we all are free.” At the heart of this, we are saying that the world doesn't work for any of us, until it works for all of us.
As the Co-Executive Director of MCAN, I have felt called to respond to what is happening between the Palestinian and Israeli peoples. But in times like this, I know myself to pause both in trepidation and reverence. The trepidation is about saying the “wrong thing,” and about buying into the false dichotomy that there is a wrong or right side that I must choose. The reverence is rooted in my spiritual tradition in that the words we say have the power of life and death and therefore we ought to be responsible in what we say.
So let me say this. I believe in a world where the Palestinian peoples deserve complete and true liberation of their minds, bodies, and spirits. I also believe in a world where the Israeli peoples deserve complete and true liberation of their minds, bodies, and spirits.
As we continue to witness the death and destruction happening in Israel and Gaza, we see just how truly the world as it is doesn’t work for any of us. In many ways, it never has. But in the midst of all the traumatic things happening now, it is hard to look away and ignore the age old cycle of illusive safety in which culture and those in power can trap us into picking a side and losing sight of the fact that we are all one people. We may think this is happening a long, long way from us here in Massachusetts, but it is touching our lives - or the lives of neighbors - in ways seen and unseen. If the news of the suffering of the Palestinian and Israeli peoples isn’t hitting our hearts, it is at least on our headlines. We have a choice to not become comfortable or numb. We can run from each other and go to our corners or we can do the opposite of what cultural systems of oppression often tell us to do; we can lean into the humanity of each other. Human life is being lost and when that happens we all actually lose.
Headlines and hearts could be full to overflowing for some time; the devastating destruction has been long in the making and reportedly is only just beginning. So what can that mean for us here when understanding and resolution appears far from the horizon? When we are missing answers, we ask questions.
How do we hold space for others believing a narrative we don’t hold?
How do we hold space for those who are grieving for lives lost or coming out of these conflicted communities?
Could the job of those not directly impacted by this be to listen and make sure our people who are impacted are okay and have space to heal?
If we are personally impacted by the conflict, what do we need from our affiliate communities to be able to lean into our relationships here for support and solace?
How do we listen to others rather than seeking to be heard?
How do we break out of the trap set forth by politicians, pundits, and the press that promotes an either/or and binary viewpoint, in order to freely consider a perspective that allows for multiple things to be true?
How do we make a distinction between people and politics and faith and fear?
Author Michael T. McRay has written, “If a moral compass has compassion only for the deaths of either Israelis or Palestinians, I believe that moral compass is broken. All the killing should grieve us.”
In the Bweté spiritual tradition rooted in my ancestral home of Gabon, we say “Life is the greatest gift from the Creator.” Massachusetts, our siblings are dying a world away. We have one more question to ask in this moment, “How might we learn to do life together differently?”
Love & Peace,
Brother William