They tried to bury us. They didn’t know we were seeds.

@SoPlainlyJane

Connections with others, especially during this pandemic and the political upheaval of these past months/years, have been difficult to maintain. However, we are connected to each other regardless of external evidence to the contrary. I am reminded of this fact when the challenge lies when those with whom one is connected are sometimes people with whom you wouldn’t want to share a conversation or a meal. As a teacher, I have to look beyond a student’s choices and behavior and try to empathize with them to see that some of their actions may be responses to the pain they have had to deal with in their lives. This is not always easy and I am not always successful.  This challenge has become more prevalent in the current political climate.

In some interactions I have had to choose how to respond to someone who has political views that are polar opposites to mine. For example, a repairman I dealt with kept making statements during our conversations that were supportive of the president and his policies. The first thing I noticed was that some of his statements made me physically ill: 1. because he professes to be a religious man, and 2. because by supporting, for example, police brutality as necessary for national security, he was discounting the lives and suffering of the victims of said brutality. I could not bring myself to try to reason with him because, from former interactions with this person, I knew he would not back down from his views. I was torn, though, between trying to find something that we had in common and just totally discounting him. I made a weak attempt to steer the conversation toward his family or some other topic that would engender sympathy for the oppressed, but it did not work. At first, I felt that by not arguing with him, I was not standing up for the oppressed, but then, when I thought about it, I found that my energy could be better spent working toward justice on the side of the oppressed rather than trying to convince one person to change his mind. When we free all the victims of violence and hate, then we will have the luxury of being able to work on changing the minds and hearts of those who fight against peace and acceptance. As a Friend, I think this is part of living the testimonies of integrity and stewardship – being true to one’s convictions while using the gifts one has to better one’s community and environment.

The situation in which we find ourselves as a country and individually is overwhelming on an epic scale. Some days it is hard just to put one foot in front of the other because the barriers that have been built (and I’m not just talking about the wall) seem so impregnable that there seems to be no surviving them. That is when the quote comes to the fore: “They tried to bury us. They didn’t know we were seeds”. In all situations of oppression in history, at some point, seeds of hope and disarming love and, yes, even anger have been planted in people who rise up and become the salvation of the society in which they live. I am nowhere near savior material, but seeds have been planted in me that will germinate and we’ll see what they grow into. Maybe there is some effort to which I am being called in order that I can use my gifts to play a small part in keeping more oppression from happening.

Humor is a way I have dealt with most everything, especially this past year. Finding humor amidst the darkness brings light to every situation. In the classroom, I have found that taking everything more lightly has helped me to deal with the challenges I face daily and has also helped most of my students to be more relaxed and be able to succeed in a low-pressure environment. As for the rest of my journey, I have constant humor in my life from Jan and the laughter we share every day. Sometimes it’s something as simple as puppy or goat videos and sometimes it is funny tweets or threads online that give a lighter perspective on the issues of the day. I try to greet everyone I encounter each day with a smile (that I think they can tell is a smile even with the mask) and joyful welcome. I have found that sharing anger and frustration does nothing to make the situation better. Sometimes it is good to vent, but constant rehashing of all that is wrong is as bad as the current practice of doom scrolling online. If there is no humor to be found in the situation (some situations are like that), we can find humor in how we view the ridiculousness of some people’s responses to it or at least how we view ourselves amidst the chaos.

So, my goal is to live with integrity and to bring real solutions where I can; where I can’t bring solutions, I strive to bring humor and Light. These are ways to honor connection.

Lisa Erazmus

Photo: Lawrence Aritao-Unsplash