My head is swimming. Listening to NPR on my way to work, I intentionally nod -- Yes!, railing against Trump, white supremacy, and Islamophobia.
But my life experience gives me pause. A Sicilian/Irish Catholic American through and through, 12 years of Catholic school, and a more personal search for self, landed me into Christian Pentacostalism, and, more importantly, 30 years of cult beliefs, where the leader claimed messianic status, and his theology absolute.
What leads humans to seek a guru? A single person upon whom to pin hopes, beliefs, and loyalty? Historically, this has, of course, gone beyond religion.
Adolf Hitler, Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, Gautama Buddha, Jim Jones, Jesus, Menachem Schneerson, Sun Myung Moon, every parish priest. And the list goes on. . .
We do not trust ourselves.
What would a modern world be like if each human individual relied solely on her or his own conscience? Would we be lost to anarchy? Or would we be challenged to locate the angels of our better nature, finding a way to live together, with wild differences, yet communally seeking co-habitation?
Part of me wants to blame men for all historical problems. If women ran the world, it would be a far better place! But, as the mother of two amazing, moral men, I cannot go there.
Here, I pose a most basic of challenges: How do we make our global community better? How do we appeal to each and every person's better angels? How?
