The First and Most Important Agreement
As the 4 Agreements States - "Be impeccable with your word." Your words have immense power. Let not terror beget terror. “If you watch the news you are misinformed.?If you ignore it, you are uninformed.” – Denzel Washington. If these are true, with that power comes responsibility to individually seek truth, conduct research, peacefully debate, and investigate intelligently without bias. ?We must then choose wisely to use our word with probity and intelligence. The lack of integrity, perverse political and monetary capture of our “trusted” sources from politicians to mainstream media combined with the sophisticated capabilities of those bad actors has left only a small crease of truth available to mere mortals like you and I.? As humans we are deeply flawed and emotionally vulnerable. ??If properly triggered the grip of our ego holds stubbornly to even the most illogical beliefs. Whether your nation, your employer or a local gang asks you to pick sides or “stand” - whatever that means - reserve the right to simply observe and research before you protest.? Be careful you are not being asked to conflate a people with a nation or movement or religion.?The media, national leaders, and even religious pundits either lack the self-awareness or worse engineer their sophisticated rhetoric to play on our cognitive biases, persuading and control our minds and bodies into a state of fear and anxiety over situations we have little or no control over. ?It's ok to hold judgement. Our egos trick us into believing we have more control over situations than we actually do. We can however control ourselves and especially our words. In the meantime. Love thy neighbor.?Do onto others as you would do onto yourself because there are no “others”. I pray for the innocent people of Palestine and Israel and all those who have been misled into a hasty “stand with” any person, organization or nation that violates human rights. Again, let not terror beget terror and be impeccable with your word. Try to seek different perspectives. What I'm reading today - Amnesty International conducted a comprehensive analysis on what they call the Apartheid State of Israel.? I'm still learning. I'm still reading and may never be fully understanding. Tomorrow, I may read something else, but by this weekend I doubt I'll be in a position to tell you where to "stand" or judge anyone if they don't. I’ve seen good people make comments encouraging indiscriminate violence that will result in the death of more innocent people. I believe they will regret these words not realizing that even a few drops of water can sprout the seeds of hate. Be impeccable with your word.