There are moments in life when something just stops you in your tracks, where you see something, hear something, read something that just makes you stand still and catch your breath and refocuses your mind. Well, with that said, I came across another blog sorta kinda by accident (specifically Chet DeRouen - the link to his blog will be posted below- is friends with my childhood youth pastors, John and Star Forbis who I still keep in contact with on FB) and in reading his blog I had this moment where my mind just stood still and I knew I had to talk to this guy. I would encourage anyone who would like to view the world from a different perspective to take a moment to read his blog.
To see someones life struggle written down is heart wrenching as he is a good person just trying to live an honest life. I would say, there are few people who would be willing to talk so freely about their life struggles. We tend to say the quick, "Hey How are you" not really wanting to know the truth, not really wanting to take the time to listen to another persons heartbreak. I had tons of questions and thoughts running through my mind and it came down to the fact that I could not help but to relate to this person I had never met. In fact we all could probably relate; as we all have been through loneliness, guilt, shame, feelings of nonacceptance, and anger. We are all just people who want to be loved and want to feel as though we belong.
In the process of our conversation back and forth on his blog he asked me to write something for him. It did not take me more than five minutes to realize what I had to say and what was in my heart. In my quest to be a better human being this is what I wrote:
The Face of Greatness
Great explorers of man-kind have always looked to the sky,
to the wind, to the horizon and held a belief that there was so much
more than they could see. The great risk takers, looked at the world as
they knew it and said there has to be more. There has to be more than that this tiny street I live on, there has to be more than what I can see.
It really was not that long ago that people thought the world was flat,
or that women were witches and burned at the stake, or that women held
no place in society other than to birth children, or that people of
"color"did not deserve the most simplest of what life had to offer.
The
thought of something new, something new being acceptable is hard to
comprehend. Hence, why life has constantly been a battle, a battle
between what you feel and what I feel, between what this country wants and what that country
wants. What this group of people believes is acceptable and what the
other groups believes is not. Putting it simply: I am right, you are
wrong.
We live in age and in an era where voices,
opinions, media are pushed in our faces as we are driving down the road,
blaring through our radios, and popping up on our phones. Its easy to
adopt view points to take them on as our own when you surround yourself
with a constant barrage of "people" telling you: THIS IS WHO YOU ARE,
THIS IS WHO YOU MUST BE. There comes a point in time, where we must all
choose, choose to put down the outside voices and close our eyes and
listen. Listen to the quiet and listen to the peacefulness, listen to
that quiet little voice reminding you of why you are here.
We
are here to still notice the horizon, to still look out at the stars
and wonder, to walk outside and feel the wind blowing through the air
and think, What am I? Who am I? We are all human beings who at the
core want love and acceptance. Its not my place, its not my job to tell
you who you need to be or what road you should choose. My path is my
own, your path is yours. The difference being what will I choose to
do? Will I be the person who lives un-fullfilled? Will I be the person
that holds onto to selfishness, anger, and hatred? Or will I be the
person to forgive? Will I be the person who will go the way of the great
explorers and risk takers? It is time for all of us, as the human
race, as fellow citizens, as neighbors to stand up and look to the sky
and regain that courageous spirit, the spirit of love and kindness.
There
is not one of my neighbors who does not deserve love, mercy,
compassion. It is MY job as a person to look to my left and to look to
my right and say who am I? I am no better then the next.
I believe that humility sparks change, that love sparks change, that
compassion sparks change. Look at any great leader and you will find
those qualities, you will see those qualities before you see anything
else. The face of greatness takes a moment, takes a breath and does not
rise up in hate but in love and respect.
The bottom
line is, it comes down to your choice on your behavior. You have been
made you for a reason, you were born with your first and last name for
something specific, you have been born with the endless possibilities of
greatness. You have the capability to see, to hear, to feel. You have
the capability of change, to spark change, to create change. You were
not born to hate, to judge, to dictate to another what they should be.
You control you, you set your course, you decide if you are going to
pack it in or if you will put on that face of greatness that you were
meant to.
The face of greatness, is to have the expectation of ourselves
to rise to the occasion. You can be the person, you can be the one,
you can be the risk taker, the great explorer of the unknown and the
uncharted territories. You can be the one to start progress, to kick
start a change. The face of greatness. I believe you have what it
takes. I am talking to you- the mother, the father, the preacher, the
teacher, the liberal, the conservative. This is my message and what I
believe is a requirement for all of us: Take a risk to be the face of greatness and love your neighbor as your self.
(To view Chet DeRouens blog you can click this link http://whyamigayblog.wordpress.com/about/ )
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