Richard Rohr says, “Rather than fighting the systems directly and in so doing becoming a mirror image of them, St. Francis of Assisi just did things differently. The best criticism of the bad is the practice of the better.”
How do we live into “something different”?
An organization like systems are made up of people. We can’t demand a system change without addressing the heart of its people. And we also have to let go of an unconscious but faulty supposition: I can force someone to change.
While I might make enough noise and cause enough ruckus through protests to make them modify their behavior or dial back, on a good day, I only control me.
To influence the collective, I focus on myself as an individual. How do I become a “”Prime Attractor” to what we as a society really want, what we definitely need, and who we finally are [called to be]?”
I intentionally mirror the good of our humanity. I become the lived experience of “something different.” I manage me, and I offer others the freedom to manage themselves. Unconditional acceptance is the foundation of every healthy relationship not shifts in power structures or hierarchy.
Do I see you as a human equal to my humanness? Or are you still an inferior that needs to be saved, 3/5 of a human? Do I see you as a superior that I defer to, shape shift for? Or do I realize our inherent dignity, that we both are powerful beings created in the Image of Love?
Do I offer space for you to be seen, heard, valued, and protected? Can you live fully expressed in my presence without fear of harm, judgment or retaliation?
Bryan Stevenson said in his HBO documentary, True Justice, the north won the civil war, but the south won the narrative. I say, it is in the heart that all wars are won. Starting first, with my own. What story am I telling myself? How am I participating in its narrative on the stage of life? What do I need to edit in the narrative of my perception to live into life more fully, more consciously - more aware of myself and others, without a narrative that keeps me divided and separate?
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