Whatever Happened to The Golden Rule?

 

 

 

I've been thinking a lot recently about The Golden Rule. You know the one (it's a pretty universal concept, common to most religions on earth):  

 

                    "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." [I learned this version in Protestant Sunday School]

            Another variation, from Sunday School and from the minister in church services:

                    "Love thy neighbor as thyself"

 

 

In the year 2021, I ask you:  what happened?  It's been a long time since I have been in any Protestant or Catholic church. Have ministers and priests just stopped talking about it? In the list of "Top Ten Things You Should Know if You Want to Follow Jesus", has The Golden Rule just slipped to # 11?  Or # 99??

 

Seriously--I am asking.

And yes, I AM just going to focus on US Protestants and Catholics, because according to Wikipedia, "In 2019, Christians represent 65% of the total adult population, 43% identifying as Protestants, 20% as Catholics, and 2% as Mormons. People with no formal religious identity at 26% of the total population." So, the Protestants are the majority in this country, and their leaders have, as a whole, the "loudest and largest 'voice' and influence in the United States. Where are these leaders? In these days of a global pandemic, what are they talking about on Sunday mornings? What is more important--right now or any time really--than treating others as you want to be treated? Of loving your neighbor as much as you love yourself? 

Because the people I see on television and on social media--the ones standing up at school board meetings and city council meetings--screaming about "their rights" and "their freedom to be unmasked and unvaccinated", the ones calling and emailing death threats to their mayors and local health commissioners--they haven't heard much about The Golden Rule in the churches they are attending on Sunday mornings. The people harassing kids and others on the street for having the "audacity" to wear a mask--are they sleeping through the Sunday morning meetings? 

 

What the hell is going on in our country????

 

Did some of us lose our moral compass through a hole in our jeans pocket? Did it slip out of our handbags when we reached for a lipstick?

Where did our compassion go?

Oh, I know full well that what I am seeing on television and social media is a very small minority of people in my community, and in my country. Most folks want to do the right thing, the smart thing, to protect themselves and others. It's just that this small, vicious minority is sucking all the air from around the rest of us, leaving us breathless and wondering what is happening to our country. How did we get here? Or have we always been like this?

 

If COVID and its' variants were "just" sickening and killing adults, I would be a little less concerned and confused. But COVID sickens and kills everyone. Sickens everyone...sometimes forever. Old people, young people, pregnant women, and kids. You know, those little people we are supposed to nurture and protect and love so fiercely? Yeah, there are too many of them (>1) now on ventilators in hospitals because stupid adults failed them.

 

KIDS. There are people in my neighborhood, in my community, who are viciously and recklessly willing to sicken and kill KIDS. Because they don't want a simple vaccine. Or, even worse, they can't be convinced to wear. a. fucking. mask. They hide behind bogus "information", the all-encompassing word, "freedom!", and a total disregard for other people, and they are willing to sacrifice the youngest and sickest for this. I guess I shouldn't be surprised; some very wise young adults have pointed out that this has certainly been the case for their entire lifetimes--they saw adults every day who would rather have "Second Amendment FREEDOM" than protect them from gun violence in their schools. Who chose "open carry" over safe schools and the kids inside.

And here's the thing--the thing that troubles me most--our KIDS are watching and learning from we adults. They are hearing, loud and clear, the message we are allowing to escape from adult lips:  

 

                                                        "To hell with other people."

Our future? Could be. Unless (and I am being deliberately cruel) all those stupid anti-vaxxers get what they deserve and die of COVID.

Or, maybe not. I think it's up to us, the majority of people in the United States, to commit to remembering, repeating, and teaching The Golden Rule. Every day. Saying it louder and louder, to drown out the voices of the mean and vicious. Let's find ways to practice The Golden Rule. Heck, if you attend a religious service of any kind, ask the preacher, rabbi, priest, imam, or priestess to do a service on The Golden Rule. Push it back up in to that # 1 slot. 

 

We have to do this. We have to. Because, I think there's another universal teaching, common to every religion, said very well in Zoroastrianism:

            

                                         “One day you will have to reap what you have sown.” 

                                                    “If you sow a thorn you will reap a thorn.”

 

 

 

Simone Biles...OH!

 

So, if you're not into the Olympics, it's okay to skip this post.

OKAY! So, if you made it here, you are paying attention to the 2020 Olympics (taking place in 2021). You know who Simone Biles is, and probably know that she's considered the GOAT (Greatest of All Time) in gymnastics. 

You were probably at least mildly shocked, as I was, that she withdrew from team competition in the all-round yesterday. Her withdrawal meant that the remaining three gymnasts had to be nearly perfect, as every one of their scores were counted. That's a LOT of pressure to put on three athletes, and you may have reacted as I did when it turned out to be a "mental issue". I thought, "What the heck? She's trained how many years to be here, and she can't 'mentally' be prepared?! She needs to suck it up! She's the GOAT! She can't let them down!" I've watched my daughter compete in gymnastics, and watched the pain and injuries increase as the season goes on, and I've watched every single girl just "suck it up" for the team.

And yet...and yet...there is MORE to consider here.

Last night, I watched as Simone did her first vault of the all-around competition, and listened as a former gymnast "broke it down". Simone faltered at the end, and this gymnast said, "She got lost! She lost track of where she was!" 

Lightbulb for me. No more criticism of Simone Biles for me for having a "mental issue". And, you should not be criticizing her either.

If she had stayed and competed, she would definitely have injured or killed herself. Because gymnastics is a hugely mental sport--you HAVE to be in the moment every. single. nanosecond. If you are not thinking about what comes next, if you are not counting and planning where to put your body in the every next moment, you will hurt yourself. Sometimes badly. "She got lost" means Simone was not mentally in that nanosecond--for whatever reason, she lost track of where her body was and what it was supposed to do next. I cannot think of another sport that requires that mental awareness at EVERY moment. You cannot be on autopilot ever in gymnastics--your body never "knows just what to do". You cannot "get in a zone" except to exclude all other mental "noise". And Simone Biles just could not do that.

That she was aware of that, that she knew her mind so well, means this:  Simone Biles is still the GOAT. I get that now, and I apologize to her for doubting. I thank her for representing the US, and for being a role model--that can be enough.