I am at a difficult juncture.
My immediate material situation requires that, like never before in my life, I practice what I preach; care for myself; work in my own self-interest; be “here-now-can;” “keep the focus on me;” live by the Serenity Prayer. These are what I counsel any poor person to do. These are what I most emphatically now must do myself.
This entails dis-attending to all the current social turmoil.
It entails turning a deaf ear and blind eye to many messages, insistent messages, particularly coming from those who claim to have the best interests of the poor (like me) at heart.
A prospective post, “For us” (The link won’t work until the post appears.), deals with what may happen when a community cares for itself, practicing self-love. It must set forth what can only be, in our current political context, a most astonishing assertion:
One has a right to enjoy the fruits of one’s own labors.
Under compulsion, my whole ethos is changing. Never before would I have supposed that I can, that I have God’s permission, to work diligently to obtain good things for myself and enjoy them.
I hear many of those who are busying themselves so much just now in creating social turmoil, still telling me I can’t.
Who are wolves in sheep’s clothing? Is it possible that those who claim to speak for me, are instead in fact spewing forth poison?
Emmet Fox’s essay, “Your Heart’s Desire,” deals at length with, as it were, positive emotions versus negative emotions, darkness versus light. It is incumbent on all persons of goodwill to recognize that, currently, vast amounts of negativity are being spewed forth by some who wish to be regarded as angels of light.
I can name the anti-racism movement in general, and Reclaim Harvard Law in particular.
It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness, but it is useful at least to name the darkness for what it is.
Originally posted 2016-04-13.
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