One Small Step From You, One Giant Leap For Mankindness
Dr. Paul Lanthois
September 12, 2008
On this anniversary of the Sept 11 attack on the World Trade Center I can still remember exactly where I was on that fateful day. I recall my wife sitting on the sofa, hunched forward with her hands in her head fighting back the urge to be physically sick. But it was the picture of my 13-month-old daughter, Aleisha that would forever stay in my mind.
Having just learnt to walk, Aleisha was standing about three feet from the television. In front of this backdrop of horror images she was dancing with unbridled joy and exuberance. It was as if she was declaring to the world, "Nothing is going to stop me from being happy."I looked at Aleisha´s beautiful smile and then turned to the contrasting image of my wife feeling sickening despair.
My mind started racing with deep thought as I tried to process the events. "They are both exposed to the same input… but their emotional responses were opposite." I have frequently heard of the saying, "You can´t control most events but you can control how you interpret them," and this was a classic example.
But then I said to myself what many people would say. "Oh, she´s too young to really understand." But then I thought, "Perhaps we´re too old to really understand."
So I began to think about different ways to interpret this tragic situation in a way that would make a difference.
Once I stopped getting caught up in all of the understandable fear and hatred some more productive thoughts began to flow. "The plane hit the World Trade Center. That´s where the New York Stock Exchange is. The stock market is going to drop in a big way. I better get onto the Internet to position myself to be able to get some shares at bargain prices." "How on earth can you think of the stock market when this terrible event has just happened?" asked my wife, Angela, shaking her head in disbelief.
As I went onto the Internet to change my trades some more positive and productive thoughts flowed. I wondered what it would be like to be the US president in this time of crisis. I also thought that it was a time of incredible opportunity.
What a difference would it make to the world if the president had the courage and the strength to reach out to their attackers and ask, "What have we done (or haven´t done) that´s caused you so much pain that you have turned to such an act of destruction?"
Rather than just laying blame and creating further division and labelling the perpetrators as part of an axis of evil and we are the good guys, I thought it was an ideal time to address the causes of global disharmony. And since a lot of this disharmony seems to be about (or in the name of) religion I thought to myself, "What would Jesus, Buddha or Mohammed do in this situation?"
What would they do?
I would venture to say that they would extend an olive branch of peace. But how could we as individuals make a difference in the peacemaking process? The answer to this question came to me five minutes later…
After doing the necessary changes to my trading website, I checked my emails. A friend that I had recently met at a conference had forwarded me an email from Neale Donald Walsch, the author of the Conversations With God book series. Here is an excerpt:
"Dear friends around the world…
The events of this day cause every thinking person to stop their daily lives, whatever is going on in them, and to ponder deeply the larger questions of life. We search again for not only the meaning of life, but the purpose of our individual and collective experience as we have created it-and we look earnestly for ways in which we might recreate ourselves anew as a human species, so that we will never treat each other this way again."
The hour has come for us to demonstrate at the highest level our most extraordinary thought about Who We Really Are.
There are two possible responses to what has occurred today. The first comes from love, the second from fear.
If we come from fear we may panic and do things-as individuals and as nations-that could only cause further damage. If we come from love we will find refuge and strength, even as we provide it to others.
A central teaching of Conversations with God is: What you wish to experience, provide for another.
Look to see, now, what it is you wish to experience-in your own life, and in the world. Then see if there is another for whom you may be the source of that.
If you wish to experience peace, provide peace for another.
If you wish to know that you are safe, cause another to know that they are safe.
If you wish to better understand seemingly incomprehensible things, help another to better understand.
If you wish to heal your own sadness or anger, seek to heal the sadness or anger of another.
Those others are waiting for you now. They are looking to you for guidance, for help, for courage, for strength, for understanding, and for assurance at this hour. Most of all, they are looking to you for love.
This is the moment of your ministry. This is the time of teaching. What you teach at this time, through your every word and action right now, will remain as indelible lessons in the hearts and minds of those whose lives you touch, both now, and for years to come.
We will set the course for tomorrow, today. At this hour. In this moment.
There is much we can do, but there is one thing we cannot do. We cannot continue to co-create our lives together on this planet as we have in the past. We cannot, except at our peril, ignore the events of this day, or their implications.
It is tempting at times like this to give in to rage. Anger is fear announced, and rage is anger that is repressed, and then, when it is released, that is often misdirected. Right now, anger is not inappropriate. It is, in fact, natural-and can be a blessing. If we use our anger about this day not to pinpoint where the blame falls, but where the cause lies, we can lead the way to healing.
Let us seek not to pinpoint blame, but to pinpoint cause.
Unless we take this time to look at the cause of our experience, we will never remove ourselves from the experiences it creates. Instead, we will forever live in fear of retribution from those within the human family who feel aggrieved, and, likewise, seek retribution from them.
So at this time it is important for us to direct our anger toward the cause of our present experience. And that is not necessarily individuals or groups who have attacked others, but, rather, the reasons they have done so. Unless we look at these reasons, we will never be able to eliminate these attacks."
It took this letter to open my eyes to a whole new definition of personal responsibility.I realize that we cannot say that we are responsible only for what happens to us as individuals. This letter was an introduction and a challenge to start to also accept responsibility for our part in the world regardless how small and insignificant that we think that we are.
Whether we like to admit it or not the collective actions (or inactions) of billions of Westerners has resulted in a sense of hostility and mistrust amongst many in the non-Western world. Personally I could not recall anything I had done to Muslims to promote antagonism. On the same note I could not recall any actions that actually promoted more unity and understanding.My inaction was a small part responsible for this build up of antipathy.
Responsibility means that we are able to respond. If you are part of the cause, you are part of the solution. It was time for us to stop pointing the finger at others and start looking into the mirror. On that day I began to feel truly responsible for the first time. I intended to do my insignificant part as a citizen of the world to promote harmony.
The opportunity didn´t come until the weekend when on the way to the gym, I saw three young Muslims. My heart went out to them. "How would they be feeling at this time?" You could see the fear and hesitancy in their eyes as we crossed paths as they tried to avoid eye contact. Recalling some language I learnt as an exchange student to Indonesia, I greeted them with the traditional Muslim greeting, "Wassalam allaikum."
Their eyes widened and their chests dropped with relief and surprise. And then with a nervous smile, one of the girls turned around and replied, "Wallaikum salam."
It was one small step.
But a giant leap for mankindness.
Let's take another step together.
Having just learnt to walk, Aleisha was standing about three feet from the television. In front of this backdrop of horror images she was dancing with unbridled joy and exuberance. It was as if she was declaring to the world, "Nothing is going to stop me from being happy."I looked at Aleisha´s beautiful smile and then turned to the contrasting image of my wife feeling sickening despair.
My mind started racing with deep thought as I tried to process the events. "They are both exposed to the same input… but their emotional responses were opposite." I have frequently heard of the saying, "You can´t control most events but you can control how you interpret them," and this was a classic example.
But then I said to myself what many people would say. "Oh, she´s too young to really understand." But then I thought, "Perhaps we´re too old to really understand."
So I began to think about different ways to interpret this tragic situation in a way that would make a difference.
Once I stopped getting caught up in all of the understandable fear and hatred some more productive thoughts began to flow. "The plane hit the World Trade Center. That´s where the New York Stock Exchange is. The stock market is going to drop in a big way. I better get onto the Internet to position myself to be able to get some shares at bargain prices." "How on earth can you think of the stock market when this terrible event has just happened?" asked my wife, Angela, shaking her head in disbelief.
As I went onto the Internet to change my trades some more positive and productive thoughts flowed. I wondered what it would be like to be the US president in this time of crisis. I also thought that it was a time of incredible opportunity.
What a difference would it make to the world if the president had the courage and the strength to reach out to their attackers and ask, "What have we done (or haven´t done) that´s caused you so much pain that you have turned to such an act of destruction?"
Rather than just laying blame and creating further division and labelling the perpetrators as part of an axis of evil and we are the good guys, I thought it was an ideal time to address the causes of global disharmony. And since a lot of this disharmony seems to be about (or in the name of) religion I thought to myself, "What would Jesus, Buddha or Mohammed do in this situation?"
What would they do?
I would venture to say that they would extend an olive branch of peace. But how could we as individuals make a difference in the peacemaking process? The answer to this question came to me five minutes later…
After doing the necessary changes to my trading website, I checked my emails. A friend that I had recently met at a conference had forwarded me an email from Neale Donald Walsch, the author of the Conversations With God book series. Here is an excerpt:
"Dear friends around the world…
The events of this day cause every thinking person to stop their daily lives, whatever is going on in them, and to ponder deeply the larger questions of life. We search again for not only the meaning of life, but the purpose of our individual and collective experience as we have created it-and we look earnestly for ways in which we might recreate ourselves anew as a human species, so that we will never treat each other this way again."
The hour has come for us to demonstrate at the highest level our most extraordinary thought about Who We Really Are.
There are two possible responses to what has occurred today. The first comes from love, the second from fear.
If we come from fear we may panic and do things-as individuals and as nations-that could only cause further damage. If we come from love we will find refuge and strength, even as we provide it to others.
A central teaching of Conversations with God is: What you wish to experience, provide for another.
Look to see, now, what it is you wish to experience-in your own life, and in the world. Then see if there is another for whom you may be the source of that.
If you wish to experience peace, provide peace for another.
If you wish to know that you are safe, cause another to know that they are safe.
If you wish to better understand seemingly incomprehensible things, help another to better understand.
If you wish to heal your own sadness or anger, seek to heal the sadness or anger of another.
Those others are waiting for you now. They are looking to you for guidance, for help, for courage, for strength, for understanding, and for assurance at this hour. Most of all, they are looking to you for love.
This is the moment of your ministry. This is the time of teaching. What you teach at this time, through your every word and action right now, will remain as indelible lessons in the hearts and minds of those whose lives you touch, both now, and for years to come.
We will set the course for tomorrow, today. At this hour. In this moment.
There is much we can do, but there is one thing we cannot do. We cannot continue to co-create our lives together on this planet as we have in the past. We cannot, except at our peril, ignore the events of this day, or their implications.
It is tempting at times like this to give in to rage. Anger is fear announced, and rage is anger that is repressed, and then, when it is released, that is often misdirected. Right now, anger is not inappropriate. It is, in fact, natural-and can be a blessing. If we use our anger about this day not to pinpoint where the blame falls, but where the cause lies, we can lead the way to healing.
Let us seek not to pinpoint blame, but to pinpoint cause.
Unless we take this time to look at the cause of our experience, we will never remove ourselves from the experiences it creates. Instead, we will forever live in fear of retribution from those within the human family who feel aggrieved, and, likewise, seek retribution from them.
So at this time it is important for us to direct our anger toward the cause of our present experience. And that is not necessarily individuals or groups who have attacked others, but, rather, the reasons they have done so. Unless we look at these reasons, we will never be able to eliminate these attacks."
It took this letter to open my eyes to a whole new definition of personal responsibility.I realize that we cannot say that we are responsible only for what happens to us as individuals. This letter was an introduction and a challenge to start to also accept responsibility for our part in the world regardless how small and insignificant that we think that we are.
Whether we like to admit it or not the collective actions (or inactions) of billions of Westerners has resulted in a sense of hostility and mistrust amongst many in the non-Western world. Personally I could not recall anything I had done to Muslims to promote antagonism. On the same note I could not recall any actions that actually promoted more unity and understanding.My inaction was a small part responsible for this build up of antipathy.
Responsibility means that we are able to respond. If you are part of the cause, you are part of the solution. It was time for us to stop pointing the finger at others and start looking into the mirror. On that day I began to feel truly responsible for the first time. I intended to do my insignificant part as a citizen of the world to promote harmony.
The opportunity didn´t come until the weekend when on the way to the gym, I saw three young Muslims. My heart went out to them. "How would they be feeling at this time?" You could see the fear and hesitancy in their eyes as we crossed paths as they tried to avoid eye contact. Recalling some language I learnt as an exchange student to Indonesia, I greeted them with the traditional Muslim greeting, "Wassalam allaikum."
Their eyes widened and their chests dropped with relief and surprise. And then with a nervous smile, one of the girls turned around and replied, "Wallaikum salam."
It was one small step.
But a giant leap for mankindness.
Let's take another step together.
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