Valentine's Day was tough this year. As a 70 year old male living alone I have a lot of memories. I'm still connected with several wonderful women -- my mother, sister, daughter, granddaughters, a lovely neice and my sister-in-law, several smart and lovely cousins. And my second ex-wife is my best friend, someone who I can depend, my soul sister, we have a psychic bond. But this day, I was alone.
I decided to take a lengthy hike, listening to my favorite music on headphones. Five miles and about 1700 feet up the trail I immediately turned around and headed back down so I could get back to the parking lot by sundown. I was listening to Michael McDonald singing classic Motown love ballads, thinking of my personal history, the progressions of love, the supreme joys, the pain of separation. As Michael sang "Distant Lover," I remembered 1974 -- that was a tough year, too... And then I thought of my dear deceased brother, and how sad my recently widowed sister-in-law must be feeling -- they were married on Valentine's Day.
My thoughts jumped to all the widows, mothers, daughters, sisters, the relatives of departed loves, beloved family members never to be seen again. For the first time ever I felt Valentine's Day as something akin to the South American "Dia de los Muertos." As my pace picked up on the easy downhill, tears came to my eyes and rolled down my cheeks, I felt the sobs one allows when no one else can hear. I greatly miss my sweet brother, and the thought of so many other people all over the planet also racked with pain and sadness, suffering the agonies of love interrupted and denied suddenly made me angry.
The mullahs, priests, ministers, all those religious leaders, how dare they send our young men and women off to war! What is wrong with the religions of the world that they compromise their faith to endorse killing in any form? What evidence do we have that Jesus ever picked up a weapon? And what folly, to suggest that one can wreak havoc, wantonly destroy property, kill innocent people, and "martyr" oneself to gain heaven. That's the wrong way to leave this beautiful Earth. Think of those who are left behind, the pointless pain and suffering! In a religious conflict, both sides invoke God, sending men and women to die a "righteous" death. Do they all achieve paradise? More likely they are re-incarnated as rocks, to start all over, or they are given to a gloating Satan gobbling up their murderous souls.
So easy for the distant pawn masters to orchestrate conflict for political gain, solidify their "exalted" position by creating an enemy to vilify. How many reputations sullied and conflicts perpetuated by agent provocateurs and "false flag" episodes? Power tends to isolate, and power is born of creating fear and acting without conscience. Immanuel Kant examined the question and determined the end never justifies the means because the means are ends in themselves. I feel sorry for President Obama -- I'd much rather be running with him and the "Choom Gang" in an idyllic Hawaii -- compared to hanging with him and his advisers, department heads, generals, the peer group that values NSA spying, selective killing, maintaining secret dens of torture.
It's time for all religious heirarchies to consider the damage they cause by supporting a status quo that perpetuates the horrors of war, contributes to the extinction of whole species of animals and plants and threatens the future of our oceans, our atmosphere, our fragile planet. If all our religions place love above destruction, we can cease warring with each other and cooperate on building our future. Yes there is a God and He, She, It, The Creative Force, All that is Us, our shared life-force, the Godhead, the common attribute of Soul that we share, this God is Love.
One of the reasons I had hope for Barack Obama early on was his attendance at Reverend Wright's church. He was hearing rare sincerity and truth from a courageous cleric -- America is not perfect -- and I thought that knowledge would provide a fulcrum point, and Obama as president would provide the leverage to make some much needed change. But obviously his hands are tied, and he has forced himself to accept hard realities, becoming one who enforces cruelty on others to prevent even larger cruelties. This is the flaw inherent in divisive, nationalistic government -- it always becomes "us or them." And our leaders become haughty, self-aggrandizing, opportunistic. Buffered by circumstance they live in narcissistic cocoons where they are constantly reassured of their superiority. The church should be aloof from these displays of power and politic, religion a beacon of morality and a reminder that Love does not harm.
Valentine's Day should be about more than romantic love. It certainly should include romantic love, but within the context that God loves us, wants us to prosper, and this perspective absolutely does not include any act of destruction, no cruelty to animals, no domestic violence, and certainly no killing. And we should come together to soothe the grieving among us, extend our universal embrace to those who have suffered the loss of a loved one, soothe the horrible agonies of those faced with the sudden irreparable, sometimes inexplicable, seemingly unecessary death of persons beautiful and precious.
For we are all that. We are beautiful and precious. And if we value ourselves, we cannot see fit to devalue and bring harm to others. So I ask the clergy of this world, please, take a look at yourself. Are you seeking increased stature, recognition, income, personal power? What game are you serving with the "God is on our side" support for war as foreign policy? How can you rationalize supporting the killing and maiming of any of God's creatures, through war, industrial pollution, indifference to the poor, encouraging ignorance in a multitude of ways? Don't condemn me for offering criticism -- answer the questions! And be brave enough to consistently represent a truly loving God!
-- Don Baraka
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