Fellow community members,
My blog post is about something I struggled with much in life yet really started to come to terms with in my late 20s and throughout my 30s. There are very horrible people in this world, yes? Can we all agree on that? There are individuals in this world that have done very horrible, heinous and unspeakable actions. In this blog post I am going to share with you perhaps a different way of looking at people, to encourage you to not allow hate to fester within your heart, and to encourage you to love everyone, including those that have done horrible things.
When you get to the heart of my personal struggle, it has to do with the human brain, which I do not understand. Do you ever have those days where you are in a bad mood and you do not know why? You are in a funk, your eyebrows are pulled together so you have the wrinkle in between them, you are eyes are glaring and your lips are narrowed. You are signaling back off, I am prepared to attack you if you say ANYTHING. An exercise that I came up with that I do oftentimes is 1) acknowledge my mood and 2) raise my eyebrows and force myself to smile. That seems to make me happy. However, at the end of the day I still do not understand why I was in the mood in the first place.
Not understanding my bad moods is a microcosm of me not understanding the human brain. During my years as a consultant, I traveled to many big cities. In the downtown of these cities, it was normal for me to encounter many homeless people. At least I would assume they were homeless because perhaps their clothes were worn, dirty, and musty. Perhaps they would have a beard that was unkempt. Perhaps they would have a cup to collect money. The actions of these individuals were often bizarre. One moment they may be approaching someone asking for money. The next moment they may be yelling obscenities at someone or something. Over time, I came to realize that, similar to the way I was sometimes in a bad mood that I did not understand, there is a possibility that perhaps these individuals did not have complete control over their actions. Do they have a mental illness? Bipolar? Schizophrenia? Dementia? I did not understand. I often considered what they may have done or who they may have been earlier in life. Possibly served in the military? Perhaps volunteered in the community on a regular basis?
Now consider some of worst people in history. Some names that may come to mind: Osama Bin Laden, Adolf Hitler, Saddam Hussein, Ted Bundy. Oh yes, I 100% dislike the horrible things they all did. I remember when Saddam Hussein was captured and executed. I was in my late 20’s and thought a lot about that situation. Is this world a safer place without him? Without question, YES. Do I detest his crimes against humanity? ABSOLUTELY. However, I also considered a few things: What was going on in that brain of his? Did he have complete control? And if he did, maybe he was exposed to propaganda while he was younger? Perhaps the environment in which he was reared led him to believe that his cause was a noble one. So the question I struggled with is “should I hate him?”
Kirk Cameron the actor once said, “It is my goal to love everyone. I hate no one. Regardless of their race, religion, their proclivities, the desire of their heart and how they want to live their life and the decisions that they make.” It is absolutely okay to HATE what someone has done or what someone stands for. However, I would argue that, as complex as the human brain is, we will never 100% understand completely how it works. Therefore, we never really know the full picture when looking at a specific individual. As mentioned earlier, I am sure we can all agree that we cannot always give reason to why we are sometimes in bad moods.
So I leave you all with this….We are fellow humans and part of a larger human community. Remove from your heart of any hate you have for a person whether it be a person in history or a person alive now that you may or may not know. Your heart is meant to love. Simply love everyone.
Yours truly,
Jonathan Marsh
Thanks for reading our blog post.
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