Before I get down to the nitty gitty of this entry I just wanted to thank you all for your support and kind words. I am excited to see what manifests from this on-line journal. I am also interested in your comments and feedback. I know that some of you have been having trouble leaving comments. I will look into it and post the solution once I figure it out.
So this is my first real blog entry and the beginning of my journal that I want to keep for six months. !For those who know me, you know that I am a thinker, always looking for answers in everything I do. I must say it has been a challenge over the past couple of days-deciding what to write, deciding what truly reflects me and my experience. So here it goes....
Today I had to be in the city at a school to attend a meeting. The school is located in a part of the city close to where I spent close to 24 years of my life until I decided to move into the country. It is an areas which has been subject to a lot of violence. It is also an area which I seem to be continuously and curiously drawn back to.
I arrived early to my meeting and decided to sit in sit in my car, eat breakfast and enjoy some music before I went inside. I coudn’t have been in my car for more than 5 minutes when I police car drove by. The police officer rolled down the window and put is head out the window look into my car. I saw this as a sign for me to hurry up and finish before it became more of an issue than it needed to be. I went inside, only to see the officer stop a young person on the street, for reasons that are unknown to me.
Now just to make it clear, the intentions (or should I say perceived intentions) and actions of the officer is not an issue for me and is not really the focus of this story.
What I realized in that moment is that so many people in this world are subject to different realities of existence-that are totally different, but no less valid in comparison to mine. Either because of where they live, how they look, what they do for a living or even something as simple as walking down the street. This isn’t by any means new to me but it was a remainder that shouldn’t be easily forgotten.
I experienced the reality of being in a high poverty, violent area which is very different from my privileged experience in the suburbs. The youth that was stopped is also well aware of the reality that he faces living where he does. Just like the officer was probably working from a perspective of safety (although I could not really know for sure) to ensure the safety of the students at that school (and rightly so!). These are the experiences and encounters that produce different realities for each and every one of us.
I was reminded that my reality is one of many- like the police officer was only acting from his own reality and the youth who was living the reality of his experience. And even though I already know this, I think that I forgot it for a moment-I forgot how the comfort of my reality is not everyone else’s comfort and reality. Different situations can impact people in some significant ways. It is something that I can never lose touch with because it is within these different realities that true light and meaning can be found.
The truth of the matter is that people only act from what they know and from their own perspective of reality-which differs from mine, yours and the other person. In that brief encounter with the officer, we were both working out of our own realities which are coloured by a combination of our own personal histories, experiences judgments and assumptions. All of this came together in one brief encounter. It was like the movie CRASH except we both don’t have the privilege of being the audience, who have a full understanding of the details of the character's stories and we didn’t have insight into where the other person was coming from.
In this sense, I was reminded that I can never forget different people’s perspectives and the reality of their life experience because it colours their words and actions in ways that I may not fully understand or even be aware of. This experience reminded me that I should choose my reactions carefully because most of the time people are only acting from their own experience of what they know and more often than not, it has both nothing and everything to do with me.
Today I learned to remember to be open and respectful of the perspectives of other people’s reality. This is the first step to true understanding.
Love and Light,
So this is my first real blog entry and the beginning of my journal that I want to keep for six months. !For those who know me, you know that I am a thinker, always looking for answers in everything I do. I must say it has been a challenge over the past couple of days-deciding what to write, deciding what truly reflects me and my experience. So here it goes....
Today I had to be in the city at a school to attend a meeting. The school is located in a part of the city close to where I spent close to 24 years of my life until I decided to move into the country. It is an areas which has been subject to a lot of violence. It is also an area which I seem to be continuously and curiously drawn back to.
I arrived early to my meeting and decided to sit in sit in my car, eat breakfast and enjoy some music before I went inside. I coudn’t have been in my car for more than 5 minutes when I police car drove by. The police officer rolled down the window and put is head out the window look into my car. I saw this as a sign for me to hurry up and finish before it became more of an issue than it needed to be. I went inside, only to see the officer stop a young person on the street, for reasons that are unknown to me.
Now just to make it clear, the intentions (or should I say perceived intentions) and actions of the officer is not an issue for me and is not really the focus of this story.
What I realized in that moment is that so many people in this world are subject to different realities of existence-that are totally different, but no less valid in comparison to mine. Either because of where they live, how they look, what they do for a living or even something as simple as walking down the street. This isn’t by any means new to me but it was a remainder that shouldn’t be easily forgotten.
I experienced the reality of being in a high poverty, violent area which is very different from my privileged experience in the suburbs. The youth that was stopped is also well aware of the reality that he faces living where he does. Just like the officer was probably working from a perspective of safety (although I could not really know for sure) to ensure the safety of the students at that school (and rightly so!). These are the experiences and encounters that produce different realities for each and every one of us.
I was reminded that my reality is one of many- like the police officer was only acting from his own reality and the youth who was living the reality of his experience. And even though I already know this, I think that I forgot it for a moment-I forgot how the comfort of my reality is not everyone else’s comfort and reality. Different situations can impact people in some significant ways. It is something that I can never lose touch with because it is within these different realities that true light and meaning can be found.
The truth of the matter is that people only act from what they know and from their own perspective of reality-which differs from mine, yours and the other person. In that brief encounter with the officer, we were both working out of our own realities which are coloured by a combination of our own personal histories, experiences judgments and assumptions. All of this came together in one brief encounter. It was like the movie CRASH except we both don’t have the privilege of being the audience, who have a full understanding of the details of the character's stories and we didn’t have insight into where the other person was coming from.
In this sense, I was reminded that I can never forget different people’s perspectives and the reality of their life experience because it colours their words and actions in ways that I may not fully understand or even be aware of. This experience reminded me that I should choose my reactions carefully because most of the time people are only acting from their own experience of what they know and more often than not, it has both nothing and everything to do with me.
Today I learned to remember to be open and respectful of the perspectives of other people’s reality. This is the first step to true understanding.
Love and Light,
Saran
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