How to meet

Even though we are up against the very worst attitudes, unbelievable levels of indifference, almost total lack of responsibility towards the weak, acceptance of a value system geared up to damage future prospects, all this shouldn’t make us pessimistic. It’s the ultimate challenge, to face each other and, despite such different viewpoints, resist the temptation to go to war against each other. It’s as if we are the victims of a divide and rule system, designed to keep us at each other’s throats. To keep us bickering and to keep us weak. Our non-acceptance of each other’s views easily turns into a non-acceptance of each other as whole persons. Dislike and disapproval move on to a policy of dismiss and destroy. We bully in order to win, but there’s nothing to win only to spoil the one chance we have of coming together. Pessimism keeps us weak and at war with one another. It’s no different to the dysfunction in homes where the dominant adult goes ‘over the top’ with the submissive child. The adult shows disapproval of a child (for behaving badly), ignoring the fact that this young person is trapped by their own inexperience of life. By giving the child a sense that they are lesser, because of their behaviour, the damaging separation starts. The attempt to exert pressure on them, to bring about better behaviour, strays into non-acceptance of the whole person. It then becomes destructive. Then both parties recognise something is badly failing, that a faith is being broken, that things aren’t progressing positively. And the further we go with it the less chance there is to restore balance. There’s a feeling of pessimism, (between adult and child). Even violence creeps in. There’s a feeling of being overwhelmed, like something is irrevocably failing, that a profound faith is being shattered. And pessimism is all we can hold onto. We abort on each other. Many parents give up on their kids, and vice versa.
If we can be optimists, through thick and thin, we can break the victim mould. We can insist on forging a positive reality. When we see violence, we then also see it giving way to non-violence, setting itself up, as it were, for a break through. The optimist actively avoids the trap of separation by never letting go of the positive.
If I predict that the value of my house will drop because Abdullah has moved in next door, I am a pessimist; the optimist would see things differently – their value system would be based on something more wholesome. So, instead of being resentful they would make friends with Abdullah. And this good neighbour would become their greatest asset. The pessimist sees the gloom. To the optimist, Abdullah might be the one person who can lift the gloom. What better aim could there be than to focus on changing things for the better, moving towards the integration of different cultures, building the global village. If we bring this about it will simply be because we are capable of it.
What could be better than living together like they do in the garden, where cats and cabbages and kids all rub along nicely together. In a future world there won’t be any need to be hurtful and certainly no reason to eat pigs or milk cows or kill chickens. If we are up to date with what’s happening in our world, we would already know that being vegan and having a plant-based food and clothing regime is possible. And then, it’s just a stroll along the garden path to where it all becomes natural and fashionable.