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.
