The Conversation About Privilege We're Not Having
Issue 07
There is no way for me, a White American male with some decades of life under his belt, to speak with any authority on the issue of privilege — White or otherwise — in our country or on the planet. But I can most assuredly speak with unlimited authority as a spiritual being having a human experience. So let’s go with that.
We are here for a reason, which means every one of us got born on purpose for a purpose. It means nothing is random and/or there are no accidents. It means every one of our individual human life experiences has been perfectly designed to advance us on a soul level even if it sometimes, often, or always looks like a shit show on the ground in everyday life. It means we take on all manner of races, genders, and other traits in a series of human life experiences. As Frank Sinatra famously sang, “I’ve been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet, a pawn and a king.” We all have.
Why are we not always asking, What is it like to be you?
I start with this review because it’s what’s true of the almost eight billion of us who are currently in human form on this planet. It’s where we have utter, complete, total equity; it’s where we are all exactly the same. The consciousness that believes otherwise, that judges others to be anything but equal is what’s dying; it’s what’s in hospice; it’s what conscious politics practitioners eschew, but I digress.
The conversation we are not having about privilege is this: I didn’t come here to have your human experience any more than you came here to have mine. Can we stop for a present moment just to let that truth sink in? You are not here to have my life experience and I’m not here to have yours. We are most definitely having different experiences as humans in ways like maybe you are in a brown body and I am in a white one or you are in a wealthy family and I’m in a poor one or you are transgender or don’t identify with gender at all while I am quite decidedly male or that you are physically strong and I am sickly or you were raised steeped in religion and I was raised with none at all or you have no legs and I have two or you have perfect vision and hearing while I am blind and deaf or you live in a repressive society while mine touts freedom as its raison d’etre. Maybe I suffer from debilitating anxiety while you do not experience anxiety at all or you have experienced profound loss while I haven’t experienced any or it’s easy for you to be light and carefree while I tend to be serious and sober or you have suffered unspeakable neglect and abuse while I have been loved and treasured or, or, or ad infinitum. Isn’t exploring what is different about our individual human experiences a fertile and deeply satisfying aspect of being human with other humans?
Why, then, would we say we are color blind when everyone can see that color is all around us? Why would we say we should not talk about race (such as we have come to define it anyway) when it is obvious that people of different races often, if not always, have vastly different experiences from one another? Why are religion and spirituality taboo subjects when my own spirituality makes me abundantly curious about yours? Why are we not always asking, What is it like to be you?
To be sure, the promise of asking that question is being able to bask in freedom and empowerment and I know everyone wants freedom and empowerment. It also fosters intimacy and connection. Anyone? There are some requirements, though, that come with asking, What is it like to be you? They are: taking responsibility (for your life and everything in it); being vulnerable; not judging; accepting; not being a victim. Basic stuff for a conscious politics practitioner.
Bottom-line, as long I think you are creating the shit in my life, I’m disempowered and stuck. If I can find a way, hopefully by your invitation, to tell you what it’s like to be me experiencing the shit in my life, now we are changing the game. Now you’ve inspired a willingness in me to be vulnerable which not only teaches me more about me but builds intimacy and trust with you. Now we are in a field of compassion. Now we are living the new consciousness. And now I want to invite you to do the same. It’s not an accident we are in each other’s lives and maybe this is part of why.
If we are willing to replace comparing privileges with intentional, compassionate, conscious conversations about our unique human perspectives of this thing we call life we will bask, indeed, in all manner of freedom and empowerment.
THIS TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15 - WHAT DO YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT?
Many subjects have been broached here since our last Spiritual Workout for Politics & Current Events Monthly Drop-In, the live-action version of this newsletter. Are there questions you have? Are there subjects you’d like to explore more fully? I invite you to bring any or all of it this Tuesday from 5:00-6:30pm Pacific time.
CLICK HERE to save your spot and please use discount code “SWP2020” to attend as my guest for the low, low cost of $0.
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NOTE: Photo by Matteo Paganelli on Unsplash
Loved this!!! By the time I got to the last paragraph I stood up and applauded!! Well said my friend! Nobody would ever be able to combine spirituality and politics in an article, especially in this day and age, like you can. Kind of an oxymoron! But you manage to blend them naturally and with perfect grace and elegance. Keep up the great writing - I’m enjoying my Sunday read!
“If we are willing to replace comparing privileges with intentional, compassionate, conscious conversations about our unique human perspectives of this thing we call life we will bask, indeed, in all manner of freedom and empowerment.”
This is it: “Bottom-line, as long I think you are creating the shit in my life, I’m disempowered and stuck.” Well said!