Village

I watched the movie "The Village" again the other day. Basically the Village is a place where the elders have agreed to all live with the same myth governing their lives and the lives of their children. I won't say more.. Except I found it an interesting although troubling concept. They raise their children in a safe place though surrounding them with something fearful that keeps them from ever leaving or trying to leave. One line is "I hope that I shall always be ready to risk everything for the just and right cause."

What if collectively a group of people make some decision about how they will look at the world. How they will frame every bit of information that comes to them. This kind of deception has often been the core of stories. The book 1984 was like that with everyone agreeing to one way of looking at the world.

Some societies really don't want their women to learn to read, even now, because ...Reading would free them from those who would rule over them. There have always been groups who want to keep others un-informed so that their decisions will only be based on one view.

When we make decisions about the world, about our lives, about how we view issues we need to do so with all the information we can. We need to be informed by people with whom we agree and those who see an issue from a 6 different perspective. We all look at life with certain 'lenses' that our life experience has. But we need to be reminded that there may be other lenses. Other ways of looking.

Fear comes, when one perspective is seen. Hope comes from the whole sky opening to you. When all the truth is before you. When Love is the law you live by.. Only love.

Odd that they are both 4-letter words... But opposites... 'perfect love casts out fear'. And in this we live our lives in thanksgiving and joy.

God abides
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2006