“If you want to make a difference, the next time you see
someone being cruel to another human being, take it personally. Take it
personally because it is personal!”
― Brené Brown, I Thought It Was Just Me: Women Reclaiming
Power and Courage in a Culture of Shame
_______________________________________
Where does cruelty come from?
Why do we feel a need to diminish and minimize others?
What is it that makes is pretend the immigrant child is a
threat?
And the poor person is lazy?
And the addicted person is a moral misfit?
And the mentally ill person is weak?
Can we not see that each child is our child?
That the person struggling to feed his or her children is
our neighbor?
That the person wandering in the realm of hungry ghosts
(Mate) is our friend?
That the person whose mind is bullying them is our brother,
our sister?
We are all children of God
Bound together
No matter what our color
Our creed
Our nation
Our status
We are bound together
Inextricably
Like it, or not
We are all part of the fabric that is the Sacred
How can we stand by, and rationalize in our heads
How can we stand by and without passion or empathy and
calmly discuss
Laws, and politics, and economic theories
While people starve, and live in boxes
While children lie on tarps on concrete floors, separated
from their parents?
What happens to those children in those warehouse is
personal!
What happens to that person struggling with addiction, is
personal!
There is no place for dispassionate logic,
No place for disengagement.
That is our parent,
Our brother or sister,
Our child.
The cruelty we see should shred the fabric of our being
Until we cry out in pain
Until we respond
With compassion,
With caring
With outrage
With words
With actions
We should take what is happening personally
Because it is
personal
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