Joy To The World
December 17, 2012 * * * * * Posted by: Ginnie 
The first time I heard that the Jews, Christians and Muslims all share the same, foundational Holy Writ (the Torah, the 5 books of Moses in the Old Testament, and the Tawrat/Quran), was…I’m so ashamed to say…when I was in my 40s. [How is that possible, coming from a preacher’s home?!]
Assuming Google is correct, ca. 33% of the world’s population are Christian (1 out of 3 people); 25% are Muslim (1 out of 4 people); and 0.2% are Jewish (1 out of 514 people). Quick math: ca. 58% of the world’s population share the same Holy Scripture.
The impact of this starts hitting home when you consider that most of the world apparently grew up with The Ten Commandments: Thou shalt not kill, for starters.
For those of us who are Christian, Jesus came early on the scene with his Sermon on the Mount, calling the peacemakers “blessed” and saying that those who are angry are as bad as those who kill. He said, in essence, that the letter of the law has a spirit: the law is fulfilled when we are peacemakers, not just when we don’t kill.
I’ve been thinking about this a lot since Astrid and I visited Antwerp’s Jewish neighborhood over the Thanksgiving weekend and found ourselves surrounded by Orthodox Jews leaving their synagogues on their Sabbath. Wars and rumors of war between Israel and Palestine and potentially Iran, to say nothing of the entire Middle East, are rumbling in the brain’s recesses. Just more of the same ol’ same ol’ on the CNN Int'l news I watch here in the Netherlands. Including now what just happened in Newtown, CT, closer to home.
Now, jump to this.
Remember when Jesus also said to love your neighbor as yourself…and how many of us grew up emphasizing the neighbor part but not the yourself part?! How can you possibly love your neighbor if you don’t love yourself first, right?! Yada yada yada. [And when did we learn that in church?]
But. If you don’t love yourself, how can you be a peacemaker? If you aren’t a peacemaker, how can you have joy? If you don’t love yourself how can you have joy! If you’re angry, how can you love yourself and make peace and have joy? And that’s not even 6 degrees of separation!
I often say “Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.” How about also “Let there be love on earth and let it begin with me loving myself.”
And how about “Let there be JOY TO THE WORLD and let it begin with me in my own heart!”
Evil in the open is but evil from within that has been let out.
The main battlefield for good is not the open ground of the public arena
but the small clearing of each heart.
--Yann Martel, Life of Pi
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The winner of last week's Shoppe Give-Away is Laura Hegfield at Shine the Divine. Congratulations!
Thanks to everyone who joined in the fun. Now that we've seen you, please don't be a stranger!
Y'all come back now, ya hear!
Reader Comments (30)
Oh Ginnie. If only loving yourself was easier. I think it is one of the more difficult tasks. I was brought up from a very early age to believe that anyone who did love themselves had 'tickets on themselves' and was, by implication deluded. And yet I can see the sense in it - I just can't quite get there yet. That said, I am perfectly able to love others and do think of myself as a peacekeeper. I am so confused. So,,, I love your final sentences before the quote from 'Life of Pi'. They speak to me, and make sense as well. I can only try. Thank you.
Amen.
How strange, Ginnie - just five minutes ago I was leafing through a dictionary of proverbs and read one I had never come across before - "When everyone takes care of himself, care is taken of all"
It is one of the contradictions of many organised religions that they don't practice what they preach. Love thy neighbour? Tell that to a Palestinian who has spent 40 years in a refugee camp. Thou shalt not kill? Yeah well! And also the tolerance and respect for the belief of others which is so sadly lacking. I am quite happy to let people believe what they want but when they stick a kalashnikov up my nose and threaten to kill me if I don't believe it too I can't help feeling we have lost the plot.
At some days I don't love myself at all. That are the days that I hate myself. That are the days that I know I should have more patience with somebody who gave me a foul mouth (for nothing) and I know by experience it builds up in me. And I know it is wrong.
My motto is, live and let live. If they have a different way of life, amen to me. As long as they also let ME live in peace..........
Too many things are going on in my head that I don't even know where to start.
I only hope that people start respecting each other.
Wonderful post with a fabulous picture.
Wouldn't it be great if we could all just love ourselves??!?!? Y-E-S-S!!! I find myself wondering - iff only it was that simple....
Love the Yann Martel quote. So..so..so true!
Hi Ginnie
This blog entry has a lovely, quirky image to grab attention, and then a fine, thought-provoking essay to encourage a little private rumination...thank you very much for this.
A lot of the stories, parables, fundamentals of Christianity are a direct lift from Buddhism [Buddha pre-dates Jesus by about 500years], and Buddhism borrowed a lot from the Hindu faith system from which it sprung...I think it would be possible to conclude that most "faiths" have a lot in common, and there seems to be little reason for faith-related frictions...but, then, frictions [like faiths] are not really bedded in rationality.
For as long as I can remember I have had a strong sense that "personal responsibility" is the fundamental principle upon which my life should be built. "Loving Oneself" is a synonym of this principle, which involves accepting credit for the positive things and blame for the negative things in One's life. Couple this principle to the determination to treat other folks the way you would like them to treat you, and I feel there is quite enough signposts to live your life well, happily, and in harmony with everything that is not "you".
This doesn't leave a lot for a "higher entity" to do, and I am comfortable about that.
Warm regards,
Ray
Ginnie, your post has provoked too many responses in me to list here!! The turmoil of a religious, class war in Ireland which was raging all through my life has led me to some similar conclusions. While we learn to fear and demonise "the other" it is often some one in our own community, or something within our own heart that blocks love and peace. We have had to learn here, to keep our individual faiths as personal and quietly lived out. This has allowed tolerance and difference to grow and be gradually understood. One God, many God's or no God at all, this is not the essential issue. No, when we have finished with killing each other in the name of "God" we have to still look into our own hearts, it's down to us as individuals and communities to create peace, to live with love of self and each other. Ginnie, love and joy simply ooze from your words:~))
how happy i am to have wandered over to your family's table this morning to read your missive about loving, a post i can certainly wrap my arms around and open my heart to as well.
may your words reach at least one person who might reach another...and, please accept my wishes for astrid and you to have a beautiful christmas bathed in light and gratitude for the love you have for each other...and yourselves.
Ginnie, your post today has sparked some interesting and thoughtful conversations in the responses from others. I echo Catherine as she says, "Ginnie, love and joy simply ooze from your words."
And...then there is the post script announcing the winner of our drawing. Congratulations to Laura. But there also is the invitation to all:
"Now that we've seen you, please don't be a stranger!
Y'all come back now, ya hear!"
You had this ole Southern Gal laughing out loud at "Y'all come back now ya hear!" LOVE IT!!!!
My mind & heart have been swirling these past days with thoughts of peace, love, neighbors, babies ... all the whys and how can such things happen in this world kind of feelings. And I still cannot make sense of much right now but I so appreciate your words this morning and your reminder of our sweet Southern speak that just sounds so right even if I haven't heard that uttered in quite awhile! Thanks, hon!
yes. yes. we forget, too easily, in this world with its ever-widening windows, that it begins with us, at home, and in our hearts. may we all find the peace and love within that we can then share with the world.
Thank you Ginnie, for the reminder to find joy. Joy to the world, indeed.
Ginnie, I love this post and your image. The line that sticks with me today is from that quote, about that small clearing in our hearts.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your proclamation of peace, joy, and love!
" Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace... "–John Lennon
Image there is joy all over the world, inside and outside of us, all around us … that would be good indeed.
Oh Ginnie, what a difficult "Task" to love oneself. Just like Soosie, I grew up with the feeling that loving oneself is only for people who are so full of themselves there is no more space. That those people are selfish, only think of themselves and don't care for others. Even though I KNOW that this is not true, it is much harder to overcome those thoughts and actually love myself. You would think that a woman over 50 should have overcome those believes that were put on us in our childhood, but no.
A lot of this resonates with what I believe and try to practise in my own very small way. I have always thought that it is a good thing to treat yourself as your own best friend. This doesn't mean spoiling yourself rotten, giving in to impulses & cravings, rather it means injecting a note of charity, humor or perhaps realism where otherwise there may not be too much of these qualities around. I can curse & criticise myself to a shocking degree sometimes, but only sometimes. I guess if I can sort myself out I might become a better person, someone who can be reasonable, supportive and good company to friends & family alike. Even strangers...
I live in hope
You hit it right on the head Ginnie... how can you love others if you don't love yourself !... there is love and peace in our lives here in Moonbeam... and it's because we love ourselves and pass it forward.... world peace starts within the heart... i have said to so many new friends around the world during the past few years through SC... life is good !
Thank you my kind Lady
....peter:)
This is such a powerful post Ginnie, it goes from one of our basic narrations (as a culture) to something much more specific. Reading it one understands that being peacemakers is a general aim, love is the strategy to accomplish it, but love ourselves every single day (as we love others, so loving ourselves and others the same way) is a precise action... a daily action.
I´ve always to aspired to contribute to a better world someway, this has been one of my main motivations to move forward... but lately (since summer or so) I have started to realize the great importance of loving myself first (or at the same time). Previously, I could talk about this issue but I wasn´t paying real attention to it . Now I have become aware of it. In fact, this is the key I was looking for in order to conquer serenity and keep the balance.
I wonder why I haven´t understood earlier...
Yay Ginnie! Nothing like getting to the source. That's the only way to truly create a cure and not simply treat the symptoms.
Obviously, you've written a very thought-provoking post. Recent events have so many thinking more deeply about what it means to be a part of this human race. I struggle so much with so many memories and feelings and so much anger aimed at myself. There is a difference between taking responsibility and beating yourself to a pulp for everything that has happened in your life. I work hard to remind myself that what 'happened' doesn't matter in this moment. What matters is that I project love and warmth in any way that I can right now. Some days I am more successful than others but part of loving yourself is to believe that you are enough and what you have done today was enough. It was the best you could do today.
Dear Ginnie, Ray has said almost exactly what I think, only he has said it better. Many years ago I did a fascinating study of folk lore, which led to an equally fascinating study of different religions, which led me to the same conclusions as Ray. I am happy with myself, and wish that would lead to a better world, but I know it won't.
From here I could go on about power, politics and money, because even in most of the churches, temples, mosqpes, synagogues and meeting houses that is the predominant theme, not the religion they purport to follow and teach. So just leave it that Ray and I have reached the same conclusions.
Boots, what a tremendous piece of writing this is, after being jarred with delight by the photo. It helps to remind me that we have more in common as people of the world than we tend to think.
I was having this conversation with my hairdresser last night (who happens to be one of my best friends, and a non-practicing Jew). I tried to explain to her how it was growing up, without a healthy sense of self. Self love? Forget about it. It's so apparent that we perceive the world through our selves, and if we begin by not loving our own dear self, what hope has the world?
I love you and your sweet, beautiful self.
To love oneself, meaning to be comfortable with yourself. That would be roughly the same way that you are comfortable with a loved one. Like the various comments indicate, the idea of loving oneself is found in various religions, books, etc. When you sit down with your therapist, that is the main object - to get you to become comfortable with yourself. No need for rage reaction, crawling into the corner, be struck by insomnia or whatever thing caused you to go to the therapist. Is failure really failure? Are you really as important as you think? Are you rich because you were in the right place at the right moment, or because you are so damn good? As long as you have some size of a chip on the shoulder, you will not be comfortable with yourself and will not love yourself.
This basic "shortcoming" will be taking out on others, causing all kinds of conflict - or in Biblical sense - the inability to love your 'neighbour'. The little green-eyed monster starts growing ...
You may remember 'Blame it on the Stones' as sung by Kris Kristofferson. But never blame it on me ...
Ginnie, I've always had problems with the as-yourself part of the love-your-neighbour-as-yourself requirement. It is so confusing. It seems that this demand is intended for those who have greater demands on people around them than they have on themselves and tells them: come on, you wouldn't want this for you, you wouldn't like that so don't impose that on them. And then there is the other group of people who can be so generous to others and so strict to themselves that there seems no need to say this to make them love anyone more. So is really the trick to combine these two views and say I need to love both my neighbours and myself to accomplish this requirement or is it that just none of us is so generous not to have a soft spot?
But no doubt about the assumption that we should love ourselves because it's the only way to live in balance.