{"id":19989,"date":"2021-03-31T09:41:39","date_gmt":"2021-03-31T13:41:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=19989"},"modified":"2021-03-31T10:49:15","modified_gmt":"2021-03-31T14:49:15","slug":"breaking-the-cycle-of-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=19989","title":{"rendered":"Breaking the Cycle of Violence"},"content":{"rendered":"&lt;<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1T2tMt0Ky6g\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe>!&#8211; wp:paragraph &#8211;&gt;\n\n<em>I doubt very much that I\nneed to point out the many ways we practice scapegoating in our society today.\nWe do it on both the political left and right, in our churches and community\ngroups, by finger-pointing and punishing. We are convinced that \u201cthey\u201d (whoever\n\u201cthey\u201d are) are the entirety of the problem. It takes great spiritual and\npsychological maturity to recognize and break the cycle. \u00a0Felicia Murrell,\na writer, editor, and friend of the CAC, shares her own desire to walk a new\nand courageous path as an African American woman:\u00a0 <\/em>\n\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n\nIt might feel good, after years of being\nshackled to scarcity, victimhood, poverty, suspicion, and inferiority, to\nproject onto a scapegoat (holding the system complicit by association) the\nburden of hundreds of years of pain. We feel righteous. We long for someone\nelse to feel what we feel or, at the very least, to validate that it\u2019s okay for\nus to feel what we feel. Heavily laden with years and years of collective\nracial anger, misuse, and abuse, we lumber into liminality with all these\nfeelings, these shackles of oppression.\n\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n\nAnd there, in liminal space\u2014the space of\nsitting with our truths; the place of mystery, the unknown; the place where we\nlet go of our injured expectations to be seen, to be known, to be welcomed\u2014we\noffer ourselves what we\u2019ve longed to have given to us. We acknowledge our\nfeelings\u2014the power and depth of each one\u2014giving them space to roll through us,\nto breathe and take on life.\n\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n\nInstead of projecting outward or looking for\nresolution, we sit with them, breathe through them\u2014allowing them to be as they\nare within us. We cry the tears our ancestors could not. We feel the fatigue\nthey were not allowed to feel. We give in to the vulnerability that would have\ncost them their lives\u2014not blaming, not finger-pointing, but honest\ntruth-telling of our dehumanizing, painful history.\n\n<em><strong>On the threshold between\u00a0what was and what will be, we unburden ourselves of our fierce, dogged\u00a0determination to control the outcome of other people\u2019s opinions of us, and\u00a0there the alchemy happens.<\/strong><\/em>\n\n<strong><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><\/strong>\n\n<strong><!-- wp:paragraph --><\/strong>\n\n<strong>With transformation comes power. . . . What\u00a0will we do with our power? What will we call forth?<\/strong>\n\nThere at the threshold, we\ndecide. Do I wield my power to force control, to shape the narrative and\ndetermine what will be and how it will be? Do I allow myself to be honest about\nhumanity\u2019s failings and the abuse of power, seeing the ways in which I too\ncould become like that which I oppose? Can I acknowledge the monster side of my\nhumanity: lament it, forgive it, and let it go, realizing that it may cycle around\nagain? . . .\n\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n\nIn liminal\nspace, I discover a formlessness that blurs the intersection of diversity and\nunity. The ambitious cry of, \u201c\u2019til all are one!\u201d somehow morphs in liminal\nspace and I realize we all are already one.\n\n<img \/>\n\n<img \/>\n\n<img \/>\n\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&lt;!&#8211; wp:paragraph &#8211;&gt; I doubt very much that I need to point out the many ways we practice scapegoating in our society today. We do it on both the political left and right, in our churches and community groups, by finger-pointing and punishing. We are convinced that \u201cthey\u201d (whoever \u201cthey\u201d are) are the entirety of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19989"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19989"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19989\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19997,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19989\/revisions\/19997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}