Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
The story I want to tell today is called, “The Blinding of Truth by Falsehood”. OK?
And it goes something like this.
Once upon a time, Truth ruled the world. And when Truth ruled the
world, there was harmony, there was balance and there was prosperity. When truth ruled the world.
People understood there was no separation of the spiritual and the physical.
That was above was below and what was below was above. They understood that life was not
finite. It wasn’t all consisting of beginnings, middles and ends and no more.
That life was cyclic and what goes around comes around. And that sun rises always, always, always
follow sunsets, when truth ruled the world. When truth ruled the world, people understood
the dangers of polarities, so they lived in a world of both and, and beyond. They saw
opposites as complementary and generative. No one was a stranger. Everybody was just
somebody’s mother, sister, daughter going to and from home. When Truth ruled the world.
When Truth ruled the world, the cup was always half full and not half empty.
People were not victims.
Each one in their own way, was a victor when truth ruled the world. But Truth had a brother
and his brother’s name was Falsehood. And this brother one day decided to ambush Truth.
And so he hid behind the bushes and as Truth walked by, Falsehood leaped up, grabbed Truth,
tied her arms, tied her legs, and blinded her eyes.
And then threw her into a hole.
When Truth left the world, the world slowly became darker. It became less bright. It started
to turn itself upside down. And it shuddered in shame. Because what was false, was now
true, and what was true was now hidden. And so all of sudden in this world, dicotomies
came up and everything became split into male, female, rich poor, black white, tall short,
skinny abled disabled, and all were separate and everyone started to look at each other
as the other as that which should be feared, as that which should be ridiculed, as that
which should be discarded. It was a very, very sad world, this world of Falsehood. And
people started to lock their doors. And as they locked their doors, they locked their
minds. And as they locked their minds, they locked their hearts. And as they locked their
hearts, they lost their souls. It was a very sad world when Truth left the world. Silence
took over speech. Fear became the dominant mode. People were told what to do and not
asked what they thought. Falsehood’s power was so complete that Truth was forgotten and
media replaced history and women were made subservient.
And this world continued in this dismal state for a long, long time
for centuries, a long, long time.
But one day, there were a group of women
and these women knew in their hearts that this world was not the way it
was supposed to be, that there was another world. That there was another way. And they
knew it because they could hear it whispering in the wind, and they could see it in the
waning and the waxing of the moon, and they could hear it in the very, very small voices
of their grandmother’s spirits that whispered to them nightly, “This is not the way. There
is another way. Separation is unnatural. Collaboration is important. Hate can be destructive. Love
can be overwhelming. Resentment can eat you up. Release makes you free. So these women
said, “Let us seek truth. Let’s go out into the world.” So they went out into the
world and they looked for truth wherever they could find her. And one day they heard this
tiny sound. This tiny sound. The sound wasn’t really outside, The sound was something inside
that was growing and growing and growing. So they came together and they found the hole
that Truth was in and they took their hands and they dug and they used anything they could
to try to get truth out. Any means, any resources to pull, to pull, to pull Truth from the confines
that she had been held in and they brought her home. And they bathed her. And they gave
her oil for her skin, and perfume for her hair. And they asked her to speak and tell
them how do they come back. “What ways are the ways to go?” And Truth said, “Listen
to your ancestors. Listen to your grandmothers. Listen to your grandfathers. Listen to the
women who have led you, who have inspired you. Women like Mildred and Jane. Mildred
and Jane who were the founders of the AAWCC. Listen to them. Listen to them they gave you
the story. They said “Come together. Don’t work in terms of Ego, work in We Go”. They
said “Build Relationships. Call upon your existing resources. You’ve got connections.
You’ve got organizations. Get those organizations together. Organize. Collaborate. And research.
Find out what are the necessary skills that you need to bring Truth back into your world,
into your colleges, into your environment, into your life. Articulate your vision and
work hard. Work hard. And remember, remember as I believe Jane says, what matters is to
study and be true to oneself. That is the first step for gaining Truth.” And so the
women listened. They listened to women like Jane and Mildred. They listened to women like
their grandmothers and their aunties, and people that they had read about in books and
they became strong. Because as they stood on the shoulders of these women, as they stood
on the shoulders of these women they were not precariously balancing, they were strong
and supported because as they stood on their shoulders, the women supported them. The women
supported them with stories about how to make A Way out of No Way. The women supported them
by examples, by their pain, their suffering and their overcoming, and they realized they
weren’t alone. And once they realized that, they were able to march into history, march
into their communities, to march into their lives as seekers and bringers and carriers
of Truth.