Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

 

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.

Martin Luther King

Today we contemplate the wisdom and courage of Martin Luther King. The quote above was taken from his famous Letter from a Birmingham Jail.

Today’s world could really use a Dr. King, or a Gandhi. A person who could show us a path towards broad acceptance of others outside our “normal” lives.

It is ironic that we continue to tear ourselves apart in a desperate attempt to “unify” ourselves. With each pass we narrow our sights on what can be unified, cutting out an ever larger group who doesn’t fit easily into our vision. What is left is a patchwork of special interests each consumed by their narrow desires.

Examples are everywhere. Some Americans want to close their borders to Muslims because a minority within the Muslim community are a threat. Republicans and Democrats won’t work together because it is inconvenient to tell their constituents why a piece of legislation is for the greater good, instead choosing to tell why they’re defending a constituent’s interest.

We objectify everything! Name people as Democrats, Republicans, NRA member, Liberal, Socialist, Libertarian, Wall Street, Rich, Poor, Black , White, Muslim, Christian, Jewish… The lists go on and on.

Objectification is simple, easy. It accomplishes two goals at the same time. It positions someone how you want to position them, giving you some sense of control over that person. Objectification also allows you to ignore the real, messily complex, person. It is the “You” in another person that is so difficult to see when “You” are covered in labels like an old well-traveled suitcase.

My only point is that You and I are greater when two becomes more than one.

A hard lesson, and an even harder action to accomplish. You and I must work at it tirelessly every day. The car that cuts you off is carrying someone under stress. Can you feel sadness for their predicament while reminding yourself you’ll still arrive around the same time? The hate-filled speech from politicians mirrors divisive currents in our society. Can you do anything to mend these divisions?

Do you have the courage of Dr. King to negotiate, self-purify, and act in the face of injustice? Even a small, tentative gesture can make a difference.

Try today! Even if it is only to forgive that person driving around you.

 

 

 

Dark Matters

Not sure if this normal, but it seems natural. I find myself looking at the world around us through the prism of the world I created in Evolved. Do other authors do this? Maybe it is my way of making subjective sense of recent events in France and the Middle East.

In Evolved there are extra dimensions, textured branes and dark matter in the universe. All of these aspects have an element of the possible based on current scientific theory. In such a rich world there are limitless ways to think about space travel and something greater.

Lately dark matter has been receiving more attention, as particle physicists like Dr. Lisa Randall publish new books on the subject. Dark matter should really be thought of as “transparent matter” since it does not interact with light and therefore we can not detect it directly. Instead scientists have observed its gravitational impact on the cosmos, resulting in fairly strong evidence of its existence.

What is most startling about dark matter is that it is all around us. In fact, about 85% of what surrounds us is likely dark matter. Billions of dark matter particles pass though us every second. Do other laws of physics exist for dark matter? Likely. Does this mean there could be life in the form of dark matter? Makes for fertile writing material, no?

So, getting back to my point. If there is dark matter all around us, in us, and there are likely extra dimensions around us, even in us – are we part of something greater that we do not recognize because our senses are limited?

The events in France had me pondering these questions as everyone was asking, why? Why would a religion willfully and deliberately kill innocent people? In some shallow respects I understand their “eye for an eye” argument. We have killed innocents by dropping imprecise bombs in the Middle East. War is nothing but the escalation of tit-for-tat.

But how does God play into this? Radical Islam seems to suggest a reward system for killing infidels who do not worship the proper God in the proper way, like God moves around and doles out specific prizes.

But, and this is where Evolved comes in, if God is everywhere and in every moment in time, it seems silly to think of God as moving closer. And how does targeted killing of a fellow person possibly get rewarded? I suppose I could turn the question around on the west and find our reasons wanting as well. Are we simply preserving our capitalistic society so we can accumulate more objects using Middle East energy sources? Our materialistic incentive structure drips with blood as well. Maybe we’ve just built up enough buffers (fighting happens overseas with a separate military, and multiple economic transactions exist between oil and our new car) to protect our moralistic compass from disturbance.

What I believe is that God is a constant. God is everywhere, all the time. It is up to us to open up to him, connect. The cardinal sins are simply telling us that these actions close us off from God, distract us from knowing. It really isn’t so complicated. No need to try to control the world around you. Just simply learn to control yourself, and whatever dark matter exists within you.

If science struggles to fully explain only 15% of the matter that surrounds us, all of us should maybe humble ourselves and open up to bigger possibilities.