Why Reflect?

Eesh, it’s been at least a few days. I used to be able to write everyday but I’m focusing on a lot happening around me and within me, so yeah :).

 

Yesterday I was talking with someone about bullying to which their response was, “…Easy, go up to the biggest kid in the yard and beat him down. Then nobody will fuck with you.” This was in regards to a friend of theirs who’s son was being bullied at school.

I was irked by the response. To me that attitude is the same one that causes bullying and ignorance to repeat throughout history. It’s the same reason for war, greed, violence and many pointless other things, to unnecessarily be accepted as “part of life.”

I said, “No, what needs to happen, is for more people to get involved and try to understand why the kid bullying him is doing what he’s doing. What’s going on in his life, what are issues he’s having, what’s he running from, what’s he hiding from and why does he see her son as ‘weak’.”

“No, that’s solving the other persons problem. It doesn’t stop the bully.”

“Yes, it does. In the long term. There’s always a deeper reason to why someone bullies someone else. Often having nothing to do with the person on the receiving end. If we can teach children to strive to be empathetic, to the best of their ability, in situations like that, then we’ll all benefit from it in the long run.”

 

Reflection, should be taught on a wider scale in terms of child education. We focus too much on results and not enough on possibilities. Some say it’s not possible to teach one-on-one with the teacher to student ratio, but that’s why we address the possibilities within the self as a whole classroom. Then homework becomes more about practicing how to better the self; thus kids being able to identify on their own, with confidence, their troubled subjects and not be afraid to seek help.

(It’s a rough theory that I’m literally piecing together as I write this out, so bare with me).

 

The adults need to help younger generations achieve true balance and growth, growth not measured by a system of competition between states or other countries. That has a limit, and what happens after we hit that limit? After human potential is topped and no one knows what it means to express unique and moving thoughts? We become a robotic world. Happy to “escape” reality while looking for validation in electronic devices; constantly plugged in to a system built to keep us alive only so it can feed on us until we’re no longer useful. Sound familiar?

Is it The Matrix, or is it happening right now?

Granted, I’ve witnessed multiple awakenings within the last few months and it warms my heart. We’re making progress as a whole, as a species and as a world. I mean, even mother nature’s been speaking up. Nature made, due to global warming, tragedies across the nation are also a sign of change. A reminder that we, human beings, don’t and won’t ever have control over Earth. It’s a reminder of how fragile we all are, even Earth.

 

Which brings me to the title question, why reflect?

In my opinion, because we’ve arrived at the last watering hole in our desert of delusion. This is it, the make or break moment. Some of us are learning from the mistakes that brought us to this desolate place of mental and emotional being; while others are slowly beginning to comprehend where it is they are. Looking down into the pool of water, unsure of what or who they see looking back at them.

Then there are the continued blind, greedy and faithless who push everyone out of the way just so they can gorge themselves on the toxic liquid flowing into the oasis. Angry at the bitter and unpleasant taste, blaming everyone else for them being forced to drink. When it’s been their blindness and drive for power that’s turned water, the bringer of life, into sludge; layer upon layer of oil, chemicals, crust, swamp gas and sewage. So now they’re angry with us for they’re need to feed on the same shit they tried to sell us as being, “something we all need.”

Why reflect now? Because if we continue to let ourselves be fooled by our pride, by the time we’re forced to overcome it, it’ll be too late. It truly is, now or never.

 

I encourage you, take a knee or two and look down into that pool. And perhaps for the first time ever, look at who you truly are-beneath the sludge and muck-and figure out how to make that person better. What do you need to do to fix your unhappiness? What is it you’re been afraid of that’s been holding you back?

I’m not saying you’ll find all the answers on your own, but taking the time to look makes all the difference. So when you’re ready, the rest of us will be here to figure out how to make this last oasis, into a new kind of safe haven. This is the foundation for our better future; this moment will become the example for us to look back on in the future.

No…it IS the example we’re looking back on in the future.

“We’re not stars in the galaxy; we’re the entire galaxy in a star.”

My Reflection.

-Gustavo Lomas