Learning to Love

It has been one week since the mass shooting in Connecticut. An untold number of words have been spilled in response to that event. I am under no illusion that I can add heft to the already unbearable weight of what happened, but I have my own take on the matter, and an urge to offer it into the mix.

I am in awe of the selflessness and sacrifice that all 28 of those beings showed by taking on the task that they did.  To come into this world as a team, a group of life-teachers and way-showers, in order to dramatically focus the world's attention on "everyday" violence was a tremendous service. But what else would you expect of such highly evolved beings?

In the system of belief that I have cobbled together during my time here, this makes complete sense to me. I can picture these "entities" in the between space, having incarnated together in various constellations many times before, planning this lesson. The world, as we perceive it, is a classroom, a series of lessons from which we are able (or not) to learn and evolve. Karma is not a punishment, it is a completion. We are at liberty to choose our path, choose to engage or play hooky, choose to prolong our separation or move toward the light of oneness. And always, ALWAYS, it is a game, a play, a school, an illusion.

So there they are ---- I'll use human images because we're so familiar with them ---- hanging out in the ether, reviewing that last go-round and designing the next. They're not children, they're not adults, they're not troubled or pure or saints or sinners. They --- we --- are seekers and learners. They're concerned about the Earth's children, their compatriots, who are struggling so much with separation and violence and cruelty and shame. They know, because there is no us and them ---- everyone has shared that experience of alienation. Some have moved beyond the necessity for playing it out over and over. Some have even reached the point of being able to transcend the illusion of death and use corporeal life to teach a startling lesson. And what could be more startling than the slaughter of innocents?

They develop the scenario and agree to play their parts, incarnate with that exact intention, though once in the heaviness of this world, those memories disappear. Each entity has, as we all do, the ability to back out, make a new decision, use free will. But this band of brothers and sisters have stuck to their agreement and in due time the horrific events of last Friday take place. Word spreads with lightning speed across the globe. Men, women, children, leaders and mothers, fathers and followers, stop and watch in horror as they imagine themselves and their own precious children taken away in a gruesome, wholly unexpected manner. It defies comprehension.

Blame is cast in all directions. Voices cry out in bewilderment, fear, righteousness, piety, sorrow, longing. When will the carnage end? they ask. Where is God? they wonder.

Gradually, in bits and pieces, through all the many mechanisms that human beings have developed, a new consciousness begins to grow. It has been here always, but held down and weakened by a belief system that gives much more weight to darkness than light. A spark here, a feeble flame there, disparate people come together to learn from each other, to teach and learn another way, a peaceful, life-affirming way. And the lesson for which so much earthly agony was endured, completes itself.

Will this be the last time? It could, if the will is strong enough. Love is a powerful force. It remains to be seen.

No, all of the people in this tragedy did not remember that they had taken on the solemn task of riveting the world's attention. Not until they moved into the light, beyond the reach of pain, remorse, shame or fear, did they remember. Perhaps they huddled together, amazed at what they had done, struck by the enormity of it. Maybe they were jubilant that their lesson was taking hold, at least in so far as getting the needed attention to cruelty, violence, innocence and love. Maybe they gathered in a talking circle, reviewing the parts they played and how that would inform their own spiritual development.

I know this is an unorthodox view. To some people it may sound trivializing, minimizing the horror of what happened and the effect on families, community, individual lives of those who remain on this plane to deal with the after-effects. For me, it is completely the opposite. These twenty-eight individuals gave themselves over to the lives of others, gave up the joys that this physical life has to offer in order to help heal the world. It is the only way in which it makes sense to me, the only way to hold not only the lives of those 28, but the untold number who live and die in hunger, pain, misery and fear every day.

There are many lessons to be learned, to be held in the hearts of unknown, distant others who hear the stories, see the pictures, imagine or remember the losses in their own lives. If there were any more evidence needed, cannot this be yet another way that we remember, that we know in the depths of our being, that we are all one?