78

Nothing in the world
is as soft and yielding as water.
Yet for dissolving the hard and inflexible,
nothing can surpass it.

The soft overcomes the hard;
the gentle overcomes the rigid.
Everyone knows this is true,
but few can put it into practice.

Therefore the Master remains
serene in the midst of sorrow.
Evil cannot enter his heart.
Because he has given up helping,
he is people’s greatest help.

True words seem paradoxical.

Tao Te Ching by Lao-tsu, trans. by Stephen Mitchell

A restless mind, a nagging conundrum, an inner sensation: if I act according to what is right, I am sure to lose. If I do nothing, even worse, I’ll have been faithless to my own life, as I’ve lived it, thus far.

So consider this imagined scenario:  waiting as I often do for the traffic light to change in downtown Geneva, or St. Charles, across the intersection two unmarked vehicles stop by the curb. Three males in military fatigues step out, to push a woman to the pavement. She was walking with two children. They zip-tie her hands behind her back,  Ought it make any difference that the perpetrators of trauma wear official uniforms? Of the many actions available to me, what does duty urge upon me? If I choose “the short game” then what? Words are irrelevant in a contest of force. Can I imagine freeing the woman?

On the other hand I consider whether “playing the long game” is what my heart (my desire) is asking? Over the long run what stays this violence in broad daylight? What is my role in “wearing out” such racism-inspired violence?

This thought experiment, is not far fetched at all. Chicago, less than an hour away from the Fox River area where I live, is subject to ICE raids on a daily basis. People are dragged away to exile, on the say-so of the occupant of the White House. Immigration, Customs, Enforcement officers are to be shielded by Federalized Guardsmen and women as they go about traumatizing residents of this state. Only a short while remains before this becomes a regular occurrence here. When it does begin, – I’ll have to respond one way or another. Doing nothing qualifies as a response too.

Why does the Old Master give up “helping”? Is helping given up because others do not recognize, or want his/her help? Thus he leaves others to their fate. Or, perhaps “helping” is given up because the extremity of violence is not sustainable, nor is hate, in order to make a stable society.  

How can I emulate water, to erode injustice, to display a “thumbs down”, to refuse to play along with injustice when I see it?