Week 40--in which we are given a stark contrast and invited to choose

Beautiful Ones,

Thank you for all your lovely responses to last Sunday’s Notes from the Field, “How we unconsciously reveal who we are.” Your kind reflections left me in tears. I feel very seen.

I was deeply moved, not just by how sweetly you responded to Maura expressing her devotion to Fritos their rescue dog in her sleep, but how you recognized the life-changing possibilities in beginning to notice how people express who they really are.

I’ve had rich conversations with friends and members of my current prayer intensive about how to tune into someone’s internal truth, often a truth they do not want anyone else to know.

A truth that sometimes they aren’t even aware of.

But to do that, we need to know how to see and how to interpret what we see.

The conclusion my friends and I have come to is that this is an essential life skill.

We realized that if our mothers and fathers had taught us from a very young age to pay attention to how people convey the truth of who they are, we would not have dated, never mind married, the people we ended up with. We would not have taken jobs we took or obeyed people we were taught to obey.

Our lives, our relationships and even our entire world would look very different. It’s a powerful concept and one I was planning on continuing to explore with you.

What happened this week made it easy. Almost comically easy.

On Tuesday, we were given the cringe-inducing image of the most highly trained and decorated military leaders in America sitting in stony silence as a weekend talk show host, cosplaying a warrior, lectured them on losing weight and shaving their beards to demonstrate they are real men with the highest male standards. The women in the room, that is the ones he hasn’t fired yet, did not flinch, yet elegantly conveyed how they perceive this man. This charlatan who doesn’t even try to hide the nazi tattoos on his bulging muscles. (Does he think we don’t know what Deus Vult means?)

He left us feeling dirty.

Then, in complete contrast, Jane Goodall died the next day. And the world gathered as one to praise, to honor, and to mourn this paragon of virtue. This self-made, totally dedicated, ground-breaking scientist. This woman who championed the dignity and intelligence of our close relative, the chimpanzee. With every step Jane took, in the jungle, on speaking daises, on television, wherever she went, she elevated our humanity.

We are better because Jane Goodall walked among us.

In a world roiling with anger, chaos, and abuse, let us be Jane Goodalls.

Life is Fragile. Handle with Reverence.

Janet
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