As I see it . . .

On February 10, 2009

We must be careful right now. There is great uncertainty loose among us. And humans hate uncertainty. We can't help it; it's the way homo sapien brains are wired. It is our nature to seek out certainty and the security of what is known. The unknown is very scary to most, as it is to all of us even if only slightly. I'd be very skeptical of anyone who told me they totally revelled in the unknown.

Years ago, I read an essay in, of all places, U.S. News & World Report. It was called "Tis the Season to Show True Colors." Ostensibly, it was about the leaves turning in the fall and the beautiful colors they show on their way out. It was the writer's view that it was too easy to believe that a leaf's true color was green just because that's how it appeared most of the time. But, he said, maybe it only showed it true colors at the time of its death when it revealed the truth of itself. The writer opined that people were like that, too. In times of great uncertainty, times of great stress, people show their true colors. 'When the chips are down . . .' kind of thing. I don't know. It's an interesting notion.

But I do know that fear seldom brings out the best in us. Maybe when our backs are fully against the wall we pull it out but when we're afraid we tighten and there's a most unpleasant knot in our stomachs. Our capacity for understanding, tolerance, love and generosity become severely challenged. The constriction we experience is a contagion for we are pack animals and our sense of stability and certainty depends upon what is happening around us. As the capacity for tolerance and generosity become strained, we feel it and we all become more tense.

We must keep our heads. At this moment in our collective history, so much is depending upon it.

I also once heard a minister render a sermon about lions in Africa, how they hunted in groups, coordinating their efforts for a common benefit. He said that lions utilize even the elderly among them who couldn't run fast enough, or who's teeth were too loose. Those lions, they would send up wind of their prey and when all the other lions were in position down wind the old ones showed they could still roar quite well, and quite convincingly. Of course, the prey ran away from the roar and into the jaws of death.

The minister wondered aloud what would happen if the zebra ran toward the roar. They would find what they'd feared was merely a toothless old lion who was no real threat to anything. Run toward what you fear. Wow. Pretty amazing thought. And daunting to think just how hard it would be to do the opposite of what every part of you was screaming at you to do and right away. I'm curious when it happened, how it happened, that our fear of death was joined with our emotional brain. Why do we fear anything threatening to us as though it held the same danger as a roaring lion? How can any emotional threat be seen as the equivalent of being torn to shreds by a pride of lions?

If we give in to our fear and summon forth our darker natures to protect us we will suffer for it. And we will suffer a lot. Evil will be loosed upon the planet and it will bring a reign of fear. Let's try instead to summon our courage and run toward the roar. Let us not turn and run in fear and desperation for we will surely stampede and trample upon one another in doing so. Let us stand and fight for something instead of retreat from something. What would it look like to run toward the roar? It would look like doing the opposite of whatever your fear was making you want to do. If fear wants you to constrict then expand. If fear wants you to become stingy, then give, not unsensibly but give what you can. Try it. You will feel stronger. You will feel good. You'll experience hope. You will have shown your true colors.

So many individuals and groups who are fighting to make something better face an even greater challenge now, because our success requires generosity of spirit from others. Each passing week, horses are being butchered alive in the thousands for no good reason. They need you to help stop their slaughter. Imagine standing before the horse who's being butchered alive and hear her screams. Look into her terrified eyes and then tell her there's something more important to deal with.

For the horses . . .

Margo Dockendorf

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