*Disclaimer at the end, this was written in 11/2023
Northern Lights and Genocide
I can’t stop thinking about the fact that the world carries such incredible paradox. We are indeed called to hold so many opposing thoughts and ideas at the same time. Many things can be true. Opposing ideas that can feel impossible to be true existing together.
Last weekend, the Northern Lights-Aurora Borealis- were absolutely incredible. I live in Tennessee in the USA. How do I know the Aurora was so impeccable? TikTok. I saw the most beautiful videos of the Aurora in Svalbard, Norway. I saw them in Iceland. I saw them in another area of Norway. Bright hues of green, red and even pink. Bright florescent pink in the sky. It looked fake, like a painting from a child’s brain. Like how could this even be real? The lights were so bright and beautiful that the locals who were taking the videos couldn’t stop loudly exclaiming at the impeccable beauty. They were the Magnum Opus of Aurora Borealis. I sobbed. This world is so beautiful.
These last few weeks have also been filled with another thing in my newsfeeds. Genocide. The Palestinian people living in Gaza and the Occupied West Bank in Israel have been victims of a mass Military movement to systematically eliminate them. One bomb at a time. Over 10,000 Palestinian people are dead. 3,000 plus of them are children. CHILDREN!!! The Israeli Government has been shelling and bombing the people in the Gaza Strip relentlessly. They have also started a ground operation, seemingly to root out the Hamas Leaders who are responsible for ordering the murders and abductions of 1400 Israeli citizens on October 7 at a Music Festival in Israel. Horrific.
Here are some of the things I have seen: 22-year-old Journalists and Content Creators from Gaza becoming front-line war correspondents. They are witnessing the murders of their very own family members and helping to pull children out of the rubble of schools and apartment buildings. They are asking for help. Actively making pleas for a ceasefire and for Humanitarian Aide to be allowed into their cities so they can try and help survivors. I have seen mothers in the street holding the bodies of their small children wrapped in sheets because they died in the blasts. I have seen entire families wiped out. From Grandparents to infants. I have seen hospitals bombed. I have seen bodies being held in Ice Cream Trucks because they have nowhere else to put them. I have seen the Government of the United States of America stand by Israel. Promise them money and supplies in order to continue this attack and Genocide. I have seen the Israeli Prime Minister call the Palestinian Children Rats and Insects and say they have only just begun their attacks and assaults. They are proud of destroying the lives of entire generations. I have seen shell-shocked kids shaking after the building they were in was blown up by a bomb. I have seen teenagers running through makeshift hospital wards asking if anyone has seen their mother. I saw one little girl, maybe 11 years old, crying and being comforted by another person when she recognized her mother’s hair at the bottom of a pile of bodies in the street. There are new Humanitarian terms for children who are the sole survivors of their families. Who will protect them? Who will save them? Who will love them now that their families are gone?
(Photo above from UNICEF)
Every time a new type of tragedy happens I learn a lot of things about the world. I am learning things I wish I didn’t know. I am learning that Men in Power will stop at nothing, even in this modern world, to maintain their own Power over others. They will not be swayed by a child crying out for their mother in the street while bombs are raining down and destroying an entire culture all around them. They will not be stopped while death and destruction become catastrophic by their own hands. They will not listen while the world calls for a Ceasefire.
The US Government is Complicit. They are funding the Genocide. They are not doing enough to stop it.
Women and Children are the ones who suffer the most from the decisions of men. They are the victims of the systems that keep Men in Power and repress women and marginalized.
I have been forever changed by the videos of what I have seen. I can only imagine what it is like for those who are still alive and have seen the atrocities. Bodies in the streets. Rubble everywhere. The people of Gaza used to have beautiful cities. They made the best of a terrible situation. They were forced to live in the Gaza strip after being driven from their homes in the 1948 Nakba. Their families rebuilt and thrived the best that they could while being actively oppressed by the Governing body of Israel. All of this done in the name of God.
Who can really know the will of God? Or even if there is only One who rules over all. Seems to me that if there was such a thing they would not stand for murdering children and innocents. But I cannot claim to know God’s morals. Or even if there is a God to have morals. We only know what we can see and what I can see from here is; A lot of people, doing terrible things to one another in the name of Holy War and Sacred Tradition. What a horrific tradition that you would choose to keep it while actively murdering others for the sake of some boundary lines on a map.
1. Paradox: a seemingly absurd or self-contradictory statement or proposition that when investigated or explained may prove to be well founded or true.
o a statement or proposition that, despite sound (or apparently sound) reasoning from acceptable premises, leads to a conclusion that seems senseless, logically unacceptable, or self-contradictory.
o a situation, person, or thing that combines contradictory features or qualities.
I can’t stop thinking about the Northern Lights. Sobbing at the absolute beauty. The reminder that we are on a rock that is 93 Million miles away from a star that gives that rock energy and light and warmth and Vitamin D and life. We have water and air and earth and fire. We are here in this puzzling Universe. We are so small. And yet, the things we do and the choices we make matter. We have an effect on each other. Who we choose to lead us matters. Who we care for matters. Who we teach our children to be matters. Our communities matter, our circles of friends matter, our lives and families matter.
Did you know that once there were some Astronauts who were interviewed when they came back from space and they were asked what was most striking to them about seeing the Earth from Outer space?
They said that they were most struck by the fact that there are no lines drawn on the planet. There is land and there is water. All of the boundaries we see on maps are not real. They are drawn by man. They are made up. We all truly are one Human Race. Bound together by what we share. This world. This Planet. This Earth. Torn apart by things that don’t have to exist. Power, wealth, dominion, ownership. We do not have to kill each other. The law of Kill or Be Killed is one we can put a stop to. Animals live this way. We have the potential to be smarter than any other animal on earth. We are the ultimate Apex of our current species. We can say No and put a stop to the killing. All it takes are people in power to stand up for what’s right. To say no to the hate.
We must not lose our Collective Focus. Keep putting the pressure on those in power. Keep the problems in the news. Make the relevance of the Genocide permanent. Don’t let it fade into the cycle of yesterday’s news.
AND
We must allow for the beauty in the world to be seen. We must look at beautiful things in order to store up energy to go after the injustice. We must see the goodness so we remember that we have something worth saving.
I can’t stop thinking about the fact that the world carries such incredible Paradox.
I wrote this essay in November of 2023. It is as true today as it was then. Truer even. And the numbers are even more staggering. As of 2 days ago more than 29,000 Palestinian people have been murdered and more than 69,000 injured since 10/7. There are thousands still missing under the rubble. No fully functioning hospitals. Over half of the people killed are children.
The Universe holds such beauty.
A Quote I cannot stop thinking about: “Your zip code, more than your genetic code, determines whether you will lead a safe and healthy life.” Bessel Van Der Kolk in “The Body Keeps the Score.”
Thanks for being here. Sending love to you out there in the ether.