(This article in a deep-dive conversation format, courtesy of Notebooklm follows)
The devastating impact of recent hurricanes in the Southeast is painful to witness, even from the far corners of the nation. Instinctively, we feel the sting of loss, and our first response is compassion for those affected. I am not one given to pollyannish platitudes but having seen firsthand how tragedies of this nature lead to surprisingly positive consequences I am moved to offer this perspective in the light of what good might come of these great storms.
In my former life as a property damage adjuster/ appraiser, I witnessed how the power of nature can wreak havoc on the land and the people who inhabit it.
In 1992 I was hired by a major insurance carrier to provide assistance with the enormous property damage claims, which resulted from Hurricane Andrew in Florida that year. During my work there I was struck by the indiscriminate path of this great storm. Thousands of homes and businesses were destroyed or severely damaged. The residents of those homes were from every socio-economic class from the multimillion-dollar oceanfront estates to the humblest cottages. The destruction was visited on people of every color, creed, and social class. The storm showed no respect for the divisions of race, wealth, or religion that had defined lives just the day before. When the storm had passed it became clear that many walls had been brought down. Not only the structural walls that contained families and businesses but the walls built by racial and economic biases of greed, pride, and intolerance. For a time, when bank executives stood shoulder to shoulder in line with impoverished immigrants waiting for the same federal assistance to rebuild their homes and livelihoods, they spoke to each other of their shared losses. The devastation each had suffered dismantled class distinctions and left only their common humanity. Diverse people across every race and economic spectrum were having conversations, listening to each other’s stories, sharing the pain of loss, and offering compassion and hope to one another.
When we suffer great personal loss we often lose the forms that make up our identities, whether it be position, or influence or wealth or neighborhood. Stripped of these social garments our true selves are exposed revealing our shared humanity with people from all stations in life.
How many of us have held superior ideas about ourselves and believe we are smarter or stronger or more positive or enduring than other people who have suffered losses, carrying the hubris to believe, that this will not befall us? I wouldn’t let it happen. Or religious superiority notions, which would purportedly save us from hardship. If I am good in the sight of the Lord, or if bow to the east, and pray 7 times daily, or meditate regularly, or accept Jesus as my savior, that I be spared of difficulty. We come to realize, as the saying goes, that 'the rain falls on the just and the unjust alike.’ We are confronted with the reality check that nobody is exempt from loss, and we shift from superiority/judgment to compassion.
It seems we have spun this notion of isolation and separation in which we regard ourselves as so special and distinct that we have blurred our vision that sees our basic humanity in which we are commonly bound with all sentient beings. When we construct our self-image from the external world of position or fortune or even religion these constructions can become barriers that separate us from our fellow human beings. It is only when we can see ourselves and each other behind the masks we wear that we can find our common identity, to truly see each as brother and sisters.
Jesus was asked by a lawyer, “Who is my brother?” Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan revealing that everyone is our brother. That we are to look beyond externals that would obscure our shared humanity. In that story, Jesus also illustrated that our goodness is never revealed by our ethnicity, or piety, nor position in society, but by our willingness to see another person as our brother and treat him with the same loving kindness and compassion.
Again, it is the paradoxical effect of difficulties that shatter the illusions of separation and brings us to the realization of oneness. Class distinctions become transparent when we realize that our suffering mirrors that of others. When we are suffering, we easily meld with the human family that suffers. Adversity offers the gift of perspective, allowing us to exchange pride for compassion in the face of shared loss.
While we would never wish such tragedies upon humanity, when they occur our perception can be illumined to behold what keeps us divided, the egoic impulse to believe we are separate from each other and that when adversity strips away such falseness our bare essential nature is revealed, and it unites us. May we have the vision to see this truth without the pain of loss.
Namaste,
Rev. Larry
So True…. Beautifully said!!!