the disposable ones
[my year in review station 11]
(audio of this song was playing on repeat at this station)
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/i-love-everybody/id397052683?i=397052761
Disposable — dəˈspōzəb(ə)l/ adjective:
• (of an article) intended to be used once, or until no longer useful, and then thrown away.”disposable diapers”(of a person or idea) able to be dispensed with; easily dismissed.
synonyms: throwaway, expendable, single-use
Listen/Look
To even begin to wrap our heads around the disposability of the human race, of another race other than your own, of another gender or sexuality, of another income and education level than your own, or religious group, etc. is unthinkable. And yet, if our eyes are open — we will certainly (tragically) see people treating other people as “throw aways.”
Just this week I got into a conversation with a school counselor at my son’s school who shared that a man had just, one day earlier, been upset about his child’s attendance record and cussed her out using racial slurs.
How can this be? What line has been crossed in our humanity? What has gone forgotten or utterly unknown in us that we do not recognize the divine image in one another?
Examine the past year.
Are their any moments that come to mind where you were devalued, where you saw someone devalued, or where you played a role in devaluing another?
Read
Ruby Sales ON A Faith that shaped her view of self & others
I grew up in the heart of Southern apartheid, and I’m not saying that I didn’t realize that it existed, but our parents were spiritual geniuses who created a world and a language where the notion that I was inadequate or inferior or less than never touched my consciousness. I grew up believing that I was a first
class human being and a first class person. And our parents were spiritual geniuses who were able to shape a counterculture of black folk religion that raised us from disposability to being essential players in society. And it also taught us something serene about love. “I love everybody. I love everybody. I love everybody in my heart.”
And so hate was not anything in our vocabulary.
- ON BEING • TRANSCRIPT FOR RUBY SALES — WHERE DOES IT HURT?
Ruby Sales ON A VISION OF JUSTICE AND LOVE (NOT ONLY THE INJUSTICE)
I became involved in the Southern Freedom Movement, not merely because I was angry about injustice, but because I love the idea of justice. So it’s where you begin your conversation. So most people begin their conversation with “I hate this” — but they never talk about what it is they love. And so I think that we have to begin to have a
conversation that incorporates a vision of love with a vision of outrage. And I don’t see those things as being over and against each other. I actually see them — you can’t talk about injustice without talking about suffering — But the reason why I want to have justice is because I love everybody in my heart. And if I didn’t have that feeling, that sense, then there would be no struggle.
- ON BEING • TRANSCRIPT FOR RUBY SALES — WHERE DOES IT HURT?
Imagine . . .
Certainly by now the song is “I love everybody in my heart” has made it’s way deep mind. Are you singing along? Ruby Sales says that what drove her in the movement wasn’t first her anger about the injustices that she and others were terrorized with. But her first engagement of the movement was the heart of this song . . . her love for everybody.
Love for herself. She wasn’t disposable.
Love for her family and friends. They certainly were not disposable.
And then, there is love for those who terrorize. And even they are not disposable.
Is there an action you can take FOR LOVE (AND against the injustice of throwing people away)?
How might your 2017 be about speaking value • recovering value into the lives of those who have been tossed aside?
Sit with the song a moment longer.
The eye that sees nobility and beauty in what another
would regard as ordinary is the eye of prayer.
–Sister Wendy Beckett
Imagine large.
Think movement.
But also imagine small.
Think individual.
Who needs to hear it?
Who needs to see it lived out?
