Squigglies

Looking at a 3-D image of the earth all the lines outlining so many countries, tiny and large, and within the countries more lines defining individual states, I was overwhelmed.  Within the area of each squiggled line people were grouped and gathered.  The squiggles marked their differences from those outside the squiggles.  Wars, genocide, and various “cleansings,” not to mention prejudice and oppression,  power and greed occur because of the squiggles.  I no longer saw countries, I saw lines in the sand screaming “you are different from me -stay out! This is mine – I will not freely share!”

Such ponderings, considering seven billion people in the world, was too much for my little brain.  I had to change the lens on my heart’s camera and see a smaller frame, more close up.  The solitary tears began to weep.  I too live within squiggles.  I have defined myself.  Not only that, but others have drawn squiggles around me and defined me.  I am squiggles within squiggles.  As I interact with people I draw my own squiggles.  I hide behind mine.  The globe looked so defined and orderly.  My everyday interactions are like squiggle bumper cars.

What if we saw the squiggled world drawn with an Etch-A-Sketch?  What if we could shake it and make all the squiggles just disappear?  Sigh.  I know I can be simplistic and naive.  But what if?  Again, too much for my little brain and heart.  I need another question.  What if, what if I began to erase my own squiggles?  What if I no longer defined myself as this or that, or having this gift or talent, or not having or being this or that?  What if I erased my squiggles and determined to just move without having boundaries?  I cannot stop others from drawing squiggles around me.  But what would it feel like to no longer have the clash of squiggles against squiggles? What if their squiggles met no resistance?  What if their squiggles had to become fluid, no longer rigid and fixed because squiggle-less, I was no longer rigid or fixed?  Would their squiggles become like the ripples on a lake that simply melt into the calm surface?

Reality is, you throw a rock into the water ripples will erupt upon the surface.  But if you make the lake big enough, like a sea or the ocean or even the universe, no matter the size of the rock, the ripples will dissolve into the calm nature of the water.  What if I start with my squiggles and another starts with theirs, and then another and another?  Together maybe we can make the lake big enough and squiggled ripples will dissolve in the calm waters of compassion and unity.  Another sigh.  And as I sigh I read the previous sentence…. “What if I start….”  I must be willing to be the first drop into the ocean.  It starts with me.  It starts with my own squiggles.  The Etch-A-Sketch is mine.