Love Wins: We Must Not Lose Our Humanity

In a divided world, we choose connection. We must not lose our humanity.

I recently saw "Ghostbusters II", and in it, there's a scene where Egon, Ray and Winston go into the subway and sewer system to investigate the river of slime they discovered running underground. Winston falls into the slime when he's trying to take measurements and then Egon and Ray jump in after him to save him. They get covered in slime and they get angry, start blaming and fighting with each other.

Egon recognizes that it is the slime that is pulsing with evil and they get it off as quickly as they can.

They realize all the hate and anger and violence in the city was turning into the sludge and gaining more momentum. They have to do something to fix it, to bring people together.

Egon: "That slime wall is pulsing with evil. It would take a tremendous amount of positive energy to crack that shell and I seriously doubt there is enough goodwill in this town to do it."

Ray: "There's got to be a few sparks of sweet humanity left in this burned out burg. We just have to figure out a way to mobilize it."

Egon: "He's right. We need something that everyone is this town can get behind. We need...a symbol."

Ray: "Something that appeals to the best in each and everyone of us."

Egon: "Something good. Something decent."

Peter: "Something pure."

And they realize that symbol is the Statue of Liberty. The symbol of freedom, democracy, inspiration, opportunity and hope.

Those scenes really struck me. I had to re-wind it and play it a few times because it really resonated with me.

Unlearning the Enemy Narrative

I was raised to believe I had many enemies.

In my environment, we were taught to fear "the world", (anyone outside of our specific Christian culture) for it was believed that they were trying to take God out of society and they would persecute us for what we believed in. Over and over this narrative was given in our home, in church, and in the Christian media we consumed.

Not only were we taught to fear them, but we were taught that they were "the others". Growing up, I heard the term "evil" used about these people. Because they might have believed in a different god or theology or they disagreed politically or morally, etc. It was confusing as well because if something is evil, then we are supposed to hate it, aren't we? The funny thing was that we were consistently taught about how we were supposed to love people. And yet those were just words. There was nothing loving about how we spoke and acted.

It took me a long time to understand and reconcile those very teachings with the attitude and actions I had and what I saw around me. I truly believe a lot of the disconnect between the two was a big part of the anxiety I lived with for years. When I started to question and take apart the faith I was raised in, it really helped me to see people as human beings that I could accept as such instead of seeing them in a negative light. It helped me to see the beauty in humanity around me.

Love Wins

We can so easily get caught up in resentments, jealousy, anger, hatred and seeing people as different than us. And it creates momentum, especially when we focus and stew on that energy and find others who are doing the same.

At times, it might feel like that kind of energy is too big and overwhelming and there is no hope. We see the news and we look around online and see so much anger and hatred. People can so easily dehumanize one person or a group of people. And when we do that, we not only miss the humanity of others but we start to lose it in ourselves.

But what we cannot forget is that love wins. Love wins every time. And just like that scene in "Ghostbusters II", that energy can grow and build and gather strength. If we can do that with negative energy, we can certainly do it with positive energy. It starts with us. One person can make a huge difference and then it moves on to others. Because truly, deep down, we long for connection and oneness in this world. We long for kindness and compassion, empathy and beauty, inspiration and freedom and hope. Do not let anyone take away your humanity. Hold it sacred and keep sharing it.

Love is strong and it becomes even stronger when it builds momentum. Keep going. Keep sharing your light. It wins in the end.