It has been sometime since my last posting which is due to many life changes I have experienced. As of late, I feel this post is entirely relevant to mental health and well-being and believe this post is relevant to each of us on a micro and macro level.
I have been thinking alot about the divide in our country, along with the reasons why we are at such a divide. It takes me quite some time to process what I think and feel a large part of the time and this is primarily due to my inherent need to understand things. Any things. In addition to the importance of understanding things, I also attempt to break things down to their most simplistic essence in order to conquer a problem. Ironically, the term essence synonymously translates with soul and spirit and I believe that at this point in our society, we are struggling with very substantive and spiritual struggles.
As I was blowing my hair dry one morning, I do what I do….. think. Moreover, I was attempting to disintegrate what is the root of this disunity and I began to consider the emotion attached to each “side” of this divide. That is what I am best at, understanding emotions and feelings. With that, I proceeded to draw upon the answer that I feel best fits this math equation of division…It is fear. Fear is what each of us are facing, whether it is on the left side, the right side, or in the middle. Each of us is facing a fear that we may have not ever felt nor had to face before. I then thought about what is everyone afraid of and in the most simplest answer I could formulate for this mathematical error, it is our fear of the unknown. I don’t need to extend this answer any more because those of you reading this will know precisely what you are afraid of at this point in time and every one of your answers will differ. Which is ironic when dealing with a figurative math equation in simplified terms.
Of course, the next discourse I had with myself as I blew dry my hair consisted of reckoning with, what would lead to resolve in relation to this problem. Again, with the most basic formulation in mind for determing how one can overcome feelings of dis-ease due to fear of the unknown, I decided the answer is understanding. Everyone and their opposition, whoever that may be, would need to understand what are they truly afraid of rather than just feel the fear, then understand why they are afraid and lastly attempt to really understand their “oppositions” point of view.
I believe members of our society are facing fears that expose vulnerabilities and weaknesses that we are unwilling to scrutinize and we need to ask ourselves are we willing to understand these fears on a more broad level in order to alleviate fear. As we all know, fear is the opposite of love, not hate. With that said, if we don’t understand our fears and one another, we will not overcome them. Furthermore, we will continue to escalate in emotional intensity which lends to two different kinds of resolve, that which means to “settle or find a solution to” or that which means to “separate or cause to be separated into components”.
It is up to us, just as how we live on a daily basis is also very much within our hands even when we feel it isn’t.
We have a choice to live in fear or live in understanding, (in love).
Lisa Parani 