It's the eve of Thanksgiving. I sit at the island in this marvelous kitchen with a most marvelous man who stands across from me as he reads. I am very blessed ... and he, being as marvelous as he is, knows the blessing is mutual. We are educating each other from our individual stores of gathered experience. We do this daily, nightly, during our free time together... and I will speak for myself about the benefits to me.
Last night we finished a study of The Pacific ... the HBO mini-series (2010), produced by Hanks and Spielberg. I am amazed at how much I didn't know about the causes, losses, and gains painfully accrued during this particular front (or any front for that matter) in World War ll. In fact, I knew nothing really about the personal sacrifices (psychologcal trauma, exhaustion, chronic and pervasive sleeplessness, unrequited thirst and hunger, unpredictable and mercilessly prolonged danger, gashes, explosions, concussions, rotting bodies, putrid water, maggots, unbearable heat and frigid conditions) made by those who were drafted or enlisted into service ... representing the rest of us who got to stay safe in our homeland.
If I didn't know better about the psychological and social destructiveness of shame, I would feel ashamed.
Instead, I choose the road offered through the thinking of Campaign for Consciousness ... I choose to notice and expose the extraordinary! Honoring the extraordinary sacrifices revealed in The Pacific, in a concrete and earthy way, I decided to tithe to those who sacrifice for me and mine, right here and now. I committed to tithe monthly to our current wounded warriors and the families they come home to after giving their all for all of us (www.woundedwarriorproject.org).
Tithing is the spiritual practice of giving from our time, talent, or treasure to individuals/groups who nourish us, take care of us, feed us, work for good on our behalf. I can celebrate my "Thanksgiving" now monthly...and remind myself that I am doing something that honors those who made and make amazing sacrifices on my behalf, in place of me.
It's good to know where our blind spots have been on the way to becoming a more progressively educated person -wherever our blind spots have appeared overtime. It's good to rewire ourselves regularly, to engage in the renewal process of rewirement. We need each other to keep ourselves growing greater integrity. Alone, we can think we know whatever we need to know. In close and persistent communion with others, our blind spots cannot help but show up. To live is to keep an open mind, to keep learning, to become more fully ourselves than we were yesterday.
Happy Thanksgiving!
