Last night I got to see one of my favorite bands on Earth play an unthinkably uplifting set. I got to dance, and jump, and sing, and connect with strangers in ways that imprint my soul and give me hope for what we all are capable of. That we’re good people, who enjoy fun, and more than anything we just want to feel nice and experience love all around us.
As soon as I got home, I had to challenge that hope, with the headlines of all happening along the Gaza strip and in Israel and in Palestine. In particular the headline of nearly 300 bodies removed from a music festival and countless others harmed and many kidnapped. There’s a lot of videos we do not chose to see, and yet they appear and take something from each of us. One video of a young woman being kidnapped pleading for help as she is taken away.
The primary reaction emoji on that video was laughter. And a sea of celebration beneath it from those who support the advancement of Palestine. Perhaps they are bots meant to defeat our soul, more likely they are people who in their own framing feel how many Americans felt when Bin Laden was killed. “We got him.”
It sometimes feels impossible to address the nuance of the tensions and violence in the Middle East. We’re the ignorant outsiders thinking just get all that unnecessary shit together. It makes it hard to speak about in any public way because there’s all kinds of layers and if you’re loud about one of them it feels like you’re neglecting another.
But what I feel universally in this, is that so many people, those good people you find at festivals, in celebrations, at weddings, and religious services, at games, those people who enjoy fun, and just want to feel nice and find love around them. They all suffer so needlessly because of the weakness, the spiritual weakness, of those we’ve allowed to take power away from us. It’s a depravity that infects us all. So few can devastate so many. I feel universally such despair and anguish and grief for all of us caught up in these violent cycles we want no part in. And especially those in this region who long for the end of this conflict.
So few can devastate so many. But dammit the many can confront and can demand healing and transformation from those few. The day we believe that and find the energy for it, The day we all decide we are going to suffer through our pain together rather than transmit it to another single person, that’s the day the Beloved Community takes reign.
I pray for the dead and the love that is shattered. I pray for the violence and destruction to come. I pray for the community leaders who long for peace and justice.
And I grieve another heavy burden placed on us all.
We want to dance, and sing, and celebrate and find love. May that pursuit heal our tears, our division, our sickness, and our violence.
We can be so much more than this.
DevonBailey.com 