May 1, 2017 | Tim Trudeau

30 May 2017

Evil

There exists the purest of evil, which has infiltrated our political structures, religious institutions, and the world’s cultures. Evil so pure and so prolific that it may shock even those who are subtly aware. If you have become aware, you know the trauma and coldness your heart encounters. For most who get a glimpse, their minds recoil in revulsion and utter disbelief; putting up walls to protect themselves from the unthinkable.

This evil disguises itself within structures in subtle ways; ways so cunning, you may be shocked by the darkness that lurks at its foundation. People stand before us, wolves in sheep’s clothing. They stand at the highest level, often times levels higher than are publicly acknowledged or for many publicly known. The evil is ancient; often times with deep-rooted family ties. The evil is masterful in disguise and able to divert attention from itself by hiding within structures and institutions that it has utter and total disregard for. The evil is designed to make you think it is something other than what it is. It cloaks itself in ideologies, which it easily sheds when the institution or structure is stained beyond repair. The evils desires you to misunderstand what its true nature is, where it lies, or its real intent. The structure only acts as a diversion and façade, and if need be, a scapegoat.

The evil is hardly worth pointing out. In fact, acknowledging it only bolsters its sway. I speak of it only so that you may know that I am aware of its existence. I do not underestimate its prolific power and control.

Our gut reaction is often times to fight against this evil, to point at, and persecute those we believe to be proliferating this evil. They are not who you think they are. The individual is not the evil; they are a byproduct, they are tips of a flame from a deep raging fire.

Distraction from good is what it seeks. Distraction from love is what it seeks. It wants you to believe you are alone and separate and misunderstood. It wants you to believe you are not special. It wants you to take without remorse, to kill without question. It wants you absorbed in media, believing what you are told. It wants you competing against each other. It wants you to believe in your political and religious ideology. It wants you to fight against the people that stand on the opposite side of you and to hate them. It wants you to dehumanize them. It wants you to fight against your fellow man.

Understand this evil doesn’t have a political ideology; it doesn’t have a religious affiliation. Its desire is to separate you from your fellow man, to not see them, to not empathize with them, to not stand with them. It wants you to fight against them. It wants you to lose your temper. It wants you to yell, and scream, and fight. It has prepared for this. It planned this; this is what it desires. It wants us to stoop down to its level and wants you to devolve, not evolve. Any action from the people stemming from anger and hatred will be used against us. It will be used to bolster the idea that those around you are dangerous and uncontrollable, and that you need to be protected from your fellow man. It wants you to be an unwitting slave. It wants you to cower in fear. It wants you to lie down willingly and submit.

What is absolutely imperative to understand is the only control it exerts is the control you allow it to exert.

There is one thing to do, one action that counters this evil, one thing that stops this evil, one thing that it has absolutely no control over, and that is to act with a selfless heart, to love, love without question, love without judgment.

Just love…

There is nothing in the evils arsenal that can stand up to this.

23 May 2017

How do you hold your beliefs?
Firmly?
Sanctimoniously?
Are you a dogmatic Democrat?
Are you a righteous Republican?
Are you a religious zealot?
Are you so science minded that there is no room for spirit?

Hold your beliefs like a baby bird.
Yes, cherish them.
But hold them tenderly.
If you hold too tight,
You’ll squeeze the life from them.

Walk gently with your eyes on the horizon.
What’s underfoot is not meant to undermine.
The landscape will always change.
Be fluid and flexible.
Resilience requires adaptation.

It is the supple tree that will survive the storm,
And seed the future.

16 May 2017

Counting time…

I was married to my ex-wife for sixteen years.
We were together for seventeen.
Curiously,
I throw that number around like a badge of honor.

I’m remarried now.
It hasn’t been long.
Maybe five years?

Do you know what’s disturbing to me?
I can’t remember,
How long I’ve been married, that is.
I never seem to remember,
Anymore.

Then I had a thought.
Counting time is a symptom of something.

Think about it.
Let’s bring it back to childhood.
When you were doing your thing, whatever it was, you were lost in time.
Right?
For me it was playing in the river.
But when I had to mow the lawn?
Time?
It came to a screeching halt!
Or, when I’d get grounded.
However long it was, it would drag on.
I was hyperaware of every moment.

This has continued to be true throughout my life.
When I didn’t like to read, I’d count the pages.
I’d always know how many until the end.
When I fell into reading, the pages disappeared.
I read, and read, and read.
Books piled high.

So what’s happening today?
Time has lost its meaning.
I’m not counting.

But I got caught up with the idea that I should,
Count that is.

You know the story.
They were married for fifty years!
Wow, that’s amazing!

Why? Why is that amazing?
Should it be amazing?
It would only be remarkable if you viewed marriage as suffering.
Now, suffering for fifty years…
Yes, that’s remarkable.

But to be with your best friend,
Time becomes meaningless…

9 May 2017

Reconciliation

George W. Bush,
I’d never seen anything like it.
Posturing himself as the simple guy.
The east coast elite, Yale grad.
I thought that was as bad as it would get.
Projections limited by personal perspective.

Today, my conservative friends tell me,
“Now you know how we felt when Obama was president!”
Wow…

Anyway, while I was driving to work a while ago,
I was listening to the news and heard about fighting in Tripoli, the Libyan capital. Rival militias were fighting.
That’s what stopped me.
Rival militias?
Think about that…

I understand the general idea. I’ve heard militias referenced over the years and understand the second amendment and our right to a well regulated militia…
But, in all my life, I’ve never known a militia member.
Have you?
They almost seem folkloric… to me.

I’ve always assumed there are militias.
I figured they were prepared.
Maybe some more than others.

This is a tidbit from the Southern Poverty Law Center:

“The number of Patriot groups, including armed militias, skyrocketed following the election of President Obama in 2008 – rising 813 percent, from 149 groups in 2008 to an all-time high of 1,360 in 2012. The number fell to 1,096 in 2013.”

Wow, wow, wow!
We’ve got militias!
MOUNTAINS of them!
I had no idea!

Ok… the point is, the possibility for us to further devolve into a state of utter chaos is… I don’t know…
Plausible, maybe even likely?

So, getting back to the idea that I never thought it could get this bad, the point is, it can get much worse.
Much worse.

Immaculee llibagiza, a Tutsis, was a survivor of the Rwandan genocide. There were roughly 800,000 to 1,000,000 Rwandans killed in roughly 100 days.
Most of the killing was done with clubs and machetes!
That’s wildly beyond my comprehension!
As many as 10,000 people beaten and chopped to death, per day,
Every day,
For 100 straight days!
This was done face to face, with bodies piled high, while awash in pleas of wild desperation.
Shameless slaughter…
The most efficient, industrialized slaughter houses in the United States today can only kill 5,000 to 6,000 cattle per day.

To survive, Immaculee was hidden in a 3 foot x 4 foot bathroom with 7 other Tutsis women for 91 days. It was a Hutus priest who hid them, pulling a wardrobe in front of a bathroom to conceal the door. The bathroom was so small, only one or two of the women could sit at any given time. The priest was only able to scavenge food for them from the garbage can. Their survival demanded such silence, they were unable to flush the toilet.
Process that…
7 women in a 3’x4’ bathroom for 91 days.
She was 65 pounds when she came out of hiding.
She lost much of her hair and had open lesions on her body.

Her family members were killed by people she knew,
Her neighbors and community members.
When the killing stopped and the Tutsis regained power, she was asked to condemn and judge the Hutus.
She was expected to curse and spit on them.
Defying expectations, she did the unconceivable.
She chose forgiveness.
The Tutsis were unable to forgive the Hutus,
Or her.
She was spurned,
The pariah.
Imagine the pressure and temptation,
To conform, to hate.
Imagine her fate,
And loneliness?

The fabric of their community was being torn apart.
Their souls starving.

Consumed with rage and revenge.
Their anger was destroying them.

It was ten years later that Immaculee was asked to come home.
They wanted her to teach them to forgive.
She was the ambassador.
Radical forgiveness was the path.

Here in the United States, we have the privilege of saying this is, or was, the worst.
With little insight of what the worst is.

Partisanship has been the path of the past,
Persistently divisive.
This will get worse if we choose to let it.

Imagine forgiving the person who killed your father, your mother, and siblings.
Imagine forgiving the people who killed your cousins, clergy, and community members.
Imagine showing them compassion.
Imagine helping them.
Imagine loving them.

This is what is happening in Rwanda.
It’s called the forgiveness project.
If the people of Rwanda can find forgiveness,
We can find forgiveness!

We, me,
We’re the only ones,
Who will,
Who can.

Forgiveness is not synonymous with apathy.
Forgiveness allays us of the burden of hate and anger.
As we advocate for compassion and the expansion of our collective consciousness, our vision will be cleared.
Radical forgiveness is the path.

Evolve…

2 May 2017

Someone recently asked me, “What’s your favorite place you’ve traveled?
I said, “I’ve come to a point where I realize that if I close my eyes, spin the globe, and stick my finger on some random place, that would be the most beautiful place in the world.”
She looked perplexed.
She didn’t want this philosophical answer.
This philosophical lesson.
It was a simple question and she wanted a simple answer.
It’s interesting. Simple answers seem beyond me sometimes.

I could have said anything.
Rome came to mind.
Then I remembered Lauterbrunnen.
But, then there is the superb sweetness of home…
Then I thought,
Would any of these answers do justice to what I’ve come to realize?

Beauty is what you decide it’s going to be.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,
Right?

It’s what you choose to see that will dictate what it is that you see.
It’s that simple.

Which brings up an old adage,
Wherever you are, there you are.
So,
If you seek to see beauty in everything,
It doesn’t matter where you are.
You’ll be surrounded by beauty.
It’s finding the beauty in everything you do.
It’s recognizing that beauty comes from within.
Beauty is not an externalized experience.
Beauty is not a place or an event.
Beauty is a state of mind.
Beauty is a state of being.

Monthly Archives: May 2017