April 26, 2023
This past Sunday, I caught an
interview on television that Willie Geist conducted with the one and only Reba.
One of the questions he asked her, early into the interview was, “how do you
describe the sensation of walking out on stage?”
It wasn’t that her answer
surprised me so much as that it stayed with me. She said, and here I’ll
paraphrase, that you step out on stage with all the razzle dazzle, but you want
people to like you, you want to be accepted, everybody does. And then she said,
“And I’m no different—you see us on the outside but we’re very insecure people
on the inside, and you do want to be accepted.”
Reba. McEntire.
One of the themes I’ve been
fond of writing about over the years, both in my novels and my essays, is how
we all have so much more in common than we have as differences. We come from
different backgrounds, have different life experiences, but basically, underneath
it all, we’re truly more alike than we are different.
With the news media full of
stories about the big divide in society these days, it’s a good idea to focus
on the ways we all are very much alike.
Now I know that I have
something very basic in common with Reba. I, too, just want to be liked and
accepted.
Our similarities as human
beings aren’t so much superficial as they are intrinsic and instinctive.
We want to live in peace and
freedom. We want to raise our children, healthy and happy, and teach them that
the best life can be made with hard work and kindness. We want to be able to feed
them, provide the things they need and even a few of the things that they simply
want. Of course, we want all of those things for ourselves, too.
We want to cherish the
memories as we make them and take pleasure in a job well done. We want to get
through the hard times and celebrate the good times. We want to live and laugh
and love.
And we want to fall asleep each
night with a heart that is looking forward to the next sunrise.
When you consider the
differences between us, they’re truly matters of preference. But they are
inflamed by those who mistake their beliefs for universal truths. And those
differences are exacerbated by hate.
Willie Geist’s Sunday Sit Down
wasn’t the only interview I’ve watched recently. Just last night, we watched an
interview by Joe Scarborough with the former British Prime Minister, Tony
Blair, on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement—that milestone
ending to the rabid violence in Northern Ireland that had begun in the late
1960s, violence that became known as “The Troubles”.
Thousands of innocent
civilians as well as many British service members were murdered during this
conflict, one that no one ever believed could come to an end. When asked what
he thought most contributed to the ability of the politicians to all come to an
agreement, Mr. Blair said, it was the people. The people got ahead of the
politicians because they were just sick and tired of the way things were. They
simply didn’t want to live the way they were living anymore. They were fed up
with being filled with fear for their children simply playing outside or
walking to school.
And I thought, as I pondered
the situation that had been and the peace that had been wrangled by all parties
involved twenty-five years ago, that really, in this modern world, that was as
it should be.
When the people realize that
the power to change what is to what should be truly is theirs, then miracles
can happen.
I hope the citizens of the
countries occupying this continent will take note of this truth, and act
accordingly.
Love,
Morgan
http://www.bookstrand.com/morgan-ashbury
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