America’s New Breed of Freedom Fighters: Law of Attraction Guide for Democrats, 3rd edition by Evelyn Roberts Brooks - HTML preview

17. QUESTION YOUR POINT OF VIEW

"I followed the pavement a little over a mile

and then turned left again onto a dirt road.

It was as narrow as a bigot's mind, and

I got in the ruts and stayed there.

My lights showed me nothing but

the still bare branches of trees and

shrubbery close on both sides."

Rex Stout (from The Red Box, a Nero Wolfe mystery)

We start making our preferences known as infants and keep going from there. Anyone who has ever tried to get a toddler ready to go out for a walk or get to grandma's house on time knows that child has a firm idea of what he is or isn't going to put up with wearing or doing in order to make that timely exit possible.

It's not that the child is being deliberately ornery, although it can seem like it. At that stage of development, it is important for each of us to begin formulating a healthy sense of self.

As the years go by, our preferences and beliefs solidify into a perspective of life that feels very real and true to us, even though so many of those beliefs would not hold up to questioning in the light of day.

A bigot learns early on that he is superior to others for one reason or another that his parents, teachers and society teach him, or that he learns from peers and latches onto. It might be his skin color, the shape of his eyes, the part of town he lives in, or the family name. Since the feeling of superiority is deeply rooted, the bigot's actions are automatic—he runs on auto-pilot driven by an innate belief in entitlement.

But what about the rest of us? What about our perspective on life, and on the people we meet? We run on auto-pilot too, generally from a broader base of awareness than the bigot's narrow mind, but we too have hidden beliefs that simmer below the surface of conscious awareness and that drive our behavior.

"Walk a mile in his moccasins." What does that old saying remind you of? Of course, it's that little nudge to take a look at the other person's perspective, to try on the situation from their vantage point.

Many times when we broaden our perspective and think about how our bright idea would impact others, we readily find ways to compromise, to add a little here, delete a little there, and come up with something for the greater good of all concerned.

That is diplomacy. We were taught the rudimentary traits of a diplomat in pre-school or our first toddler play dates. Many of us kept going with the art of compromise. Bigots don't. They stall in the me-stage of superiority to others. It's unfortunate and sad, but the best help we can give them is to be an example of people with a higher level of awareness.

If you lower your perspective to examine the bigot too closely and wonder how they got that way, be sure to shake off that vibration and get back up on your Joy Channel.

You don't want to risk being so sympathetic to a low level of perception that it rubs off on you. It's not that you risk becoming a bigot yourself—rather, it's the thought frequency they inhabit that could bring you down and cause you to attract into your life troubles that are on that fear-vibration.

When we think about what bigots do and say, or might do next, our ever-helpful memory immediately activates dormant thoughts, flooding our minds with images and stories related to racism and bigotry.

You may find yourself delving into the subject more, reading blogs and true accounts online of what people have experienced on the receiving end of that kind of hatred.

Although it is important for us to recognize problems in our society so that we know where there is room for growth, room for improvement and opportunities to be of service to the downtrodden or abused, it is equally important to monitor our own emotional health and not get so caught up in the stories of abuse that our feelings plummet, and with those feelings our power to attract good into our lives actually plummets, too.

I use and advocate a type of detachment, not the same kind of "I don't care what happens to you" that is typical of a narcissist, bigot and the like, but the type of stepping back, and stepping up to a higher vantage point so we can recognize how to be of the most value to those who need assistance.

If your friend fell into a swamp, she would probably prefer for you to stay on dry land and toss a rope, rather than jump in with her out of misguided sympathy, and yet that analogy describes exactly what we do when we go too deep into feeling the feelings of fear, discouragement and depression that targets of abuse experience.

When we give up being overly stubborn about our personal beliefs, it means we open up a space in our mind to allow new ideas to come in where we can sample and taste and get to know them, and perhaps even decide we like how we feel when we look at life from that perspective.

Keep track of your point of view, notice when you are holding too tightly to the reins of old beliefs—question those beliefs and release them when you realize they are no longer serving you.

Affirm: I now enjoy a higher perspective from which I view the long-term road of human evolvement, and I happily step onto the path of progress.