Fearless

Every time I see a bigot

preaching hatred like it’s gospel

I imagine God coming down

in the middle of the morning news

and declaring:

‘Dude,

That is NOT what I meant.’

 

And it’s not that I hate religion

or even hate bigots.

I try not to hate anyone,

but people make it hard.

 

Because it’s so easy to be afraid

of things that are different

and so hard to say

‘maybe I’m wrong.’

 

Well, maybe I’m wrong

because I can’t help but believe

that faith is supposed to quell fear.

 

Instead, Fear fuels Faith.

 

I don’t think I can believe

in a god who teaches me who to hate

but not how to love.

 

And, I know that’s not what the book says,

but we have a history of burning books

that say things we don’t want to hear,

of putting words into mouths that haven’t said them.

 

We’re so imperfect,

we’ve perfectly forgotten

that, like us,

our ancestors also got a lot things wrong.

 

They thought the world was flat

and we could fall off.

Then they learned that half of us,

at any given time,

are standing on the ceiling—

our feet connected by gravitational pull

to feet moving in tandem

on the other side of the world.

 

How small that makes us,

and how magnificent.

 

And, how magnificently misled

by voices that tell us

‘you’re all unique,

but only so long as you’re all the same.’

 

And we are all the same:

the same red blood, organs in the same places,

bones stitched together in the same ways,

trying to find ways to live on the same planet.

 

But, that’s where the sameness ends.

Is that so terrifying?

To be – like snowflakes –

individual

on a level that can’t be seen by the naked eye.

 

When it comes to snowflakes,

I like one just as much as I like the next.

I want to like people like that.

Interchangeably,

regardless of our many, many differences.

 

And I don’t think that makes me fearless,

I just think there is so much in this world to be afraid of

that there’s no room left for ‘each other’ on that list.

If we can all fill ourselves with so many small fears

– like speaking in public, or seasonal allergies –

that there’s no room left for the big fears.

 

Then, maybe we can learn to love each other enough

that faith will just be one of many, many ways

to prove it.

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