A Morning Muse on Polarities

I’ve been hearing a lot about polarities and dualities: Black - White, Good - Evil, Dark - Light, Good - Bad, God - Devil, Physical - Spiritual, Rich - Poor, and so on. You can read about them and hear about them any where from the grocery store to Wall Street to churches all around the globe. They are in every nitch and corner of our thought process and our global societies are steeped with them.

Dualities and Polarities are really antagonistic in principle. They present a ‘Them and Us’ scenario. And there is something about that mode of thinking, of living, that is disturbing to all of us - no matter which ‘side’ you are on. That mind set separates, and slices apart humanity. It causes disrespect, resentment, hate, rage, fear and breeds hopelessness. It nourishes greed, promotes segregation and increases the possibilities of war and destruction, both on a personal level and on a global level. It does not offer any semblance of healing. Rather, it presents a ‘no win’ situation. It allows us a way to judge, to exclude, and to negate. It separates, pushes apart, and invites us to become either victim or elite.

What if we looked at it differently? What if we gave up that linear thinking and mind set and saw it differently? What if we stopped judging for a minute and looked at it in truth with honesty and impeccability. What if we allowed ourselves to see a broader view? What if we viewed it as a circle instead of a polarity, what would happen? Would it not cut through a lot of conflict and chaos internally? Wouldn’t it remove the reasons for war and greed. Wouldn’t it promote respect and invite a knowledge and growth both mentally and spiritually to everyone? Wouldn’t it bring an evenness to every one? And why would we not want that? Would it be an excuse for us to feel insecure, to feel less than or more than?

It seems to me that Polarities and Dualities stem from judgments. We judge ourselves, we judge others. We judge everything from skin color, to religious beliefs, to the clothes people wear, to the way they live their lives, the way they look, the way they talk and how much money they have. We judge everything, everything. And we judge ourselves in the most merciless ways possible. We’re bad, we’re evil, we’re dumb, we’re ugly, we’re poor, we’re this, we’re that. Again, it is a ‘them and us’ dance. The question is: Why do we do that? To make ourselves worthy, to make ourselves feel better about ourselves or to prove to ourselves we aren't worthy?

What if we looked at it completely differently? What if we saw ‘God’ in everyone? What if we saw God in ourselves? What if we stopped making God in OUR image and allow ourselves to contemplate and investigate what it means to be made in God's image? What if we saw, not a linear way of thinking, but an all encompassing embracement of human kind? How would that feel and what would that look like?

Something to think about in this new paradigm that we are heading in to, don't you think?

Prissy Hamilton