THOUGHTS ABOUT RACE
To start with I looked up the word “race” in the 1828 Webster’s and was very surprised by what I found. The word comes from a Latin base “radix or radius having the same origin”. Part of the definition was “series of continued descendants from a parent”. I read the full definition over and over but there was no mention of skin colour, ethnicity, creed or nationality anywhere.
The radius comes from the centre of a circle and moves out as a ray. I like to think of God as the centre or source with each of His children as an individual ray, relating to each other only as each relates to God. I especially like the part of the definition that speaks of continued descendants from a parent. This is what we all are - children of our Father-Mother God - all individual expressions but with the same Parent, a God of love, compassion, understanding and peace. This includes the protestor, the police, the politician, and even the one who is instigating the violence or the looting. It includes those who think they are victims and that life has been unfair to them because of their colour or origin as well as those who think they are superior and better than others.
As I prayed along these lines I thought of how easy it is to say these good words. These problems, although disturbing, can seem far away but we really need to prove them in whatever way we can in our own lives if we wish to see progress in our wider world. I live in an area where, compared to many parts of the country, most people look pretty much like me and probably come from a fairly similar background. So what can I do close to home? Actually that isn’t really such a hard question and a number of ideas came to thought. For example, if I see someone who looks a bit different from me I can recognise without a doubt that this is my brother or sister with our common Parent who loves us all. When I donate something to the food bank I can confirm that our loving Father provides for all His children and that no one is left out. When I see a policeman I can know that all men reflect qualities such as justice and compassion from God who is Principle, Love. I can refuse to over react if someone says something I don’t agree with or things aren’t going just as I would like. God is the one Mind and there aren’t many separate minds trying to control others. We all relate back to the centre.
These are only small beginnings but our world needs us to see each other as all part of God’s universal family with our common Parent. In this we are not different.