This weekend I saw Wonder Woman and loved it. Something about watching a female superhero really got to me in a way I didn’t expect. I started tearing up. As I teared up, I was reminded this has been a long time coming. Not only the movie (which it has), but more importantly, equality for women, which we’re still working on.
I found out recently in China if a woman is unmarried by age 27, she’s called “sheng nu,” or “leftover woman.” And if you’re 30 and unmarried? Forget it. Life’s over. That’s literally what these women are told. The whole thing makes my blood boil.
The other week I posted a news story on Facebook with commentary that I have compassion for robbers and the robbed, and was met with so much vitriol it astounded me. People I didn’t know called me a moron (and worse), told me to get off of Facebook, and more. What I heard over and over again was, “I’m poor and I’ve never robbed anyone.” That’s great! I’m glad there are poor people that don’t rob others. Keep not robbing.
Maybe I’m off base, but it seems to me in the West there’s a notion that spirituality is for the privileged. For people who don’t have to worry so much about the mundane necessities of life. For people who have time and space to contemplate why they’re here and what their purpose is. But that’s not true; spirituality is for all. It’s everyone’s birthright.
The meeting of human potential is crucial to the survival and proliferation of our species, and we partake in this movement through optimizing our state of perception as individuals.
The manner in which we rightly impact society directly correlates to the extent to which we move towards the fulfilling of our own potential. In other words, to elicit our “best selves” is to make the world a better place.
How might we accomplish this? How might we step into the realm of our own potentiality?
I have big dreams for myself and the world. I want social and economic justice for all. I want to live in a place where racism is eradicated, poverty is eliminated, and everyone has their basic needs met. Even typing that sentence I want to laugh because it seems ludicrous. I want to pat myself on the head condescendingly and say, “That’s great Rebekah. You keep having those dreams. I’ll be over here in the real world while you live in fantasy land.”
When I was 20, I studied abroad in London. I interned with a publication that encouraged me to plagiarize. As you can imagine, it wasn’t a good fit. I was miserable and tried everything I could to get out of it – even going so far as lining up another internship, but the study abroad program said no. I still don’t know why. My parents got involved too and that also yielded nothing. It was the first time in my life that I couldn’t make my circumstances better. The first time I had to wait out a crappy situation. It was the first time I experienced a taste of authoritarianism and I hated it.
The other day I had an interesting experience. Coming home from the city, I stepped into Walgreens and noticed a couple in front of me, primarily because the man had a huge, green backpacking backpack. The couple left and I didn’t think much of it until about half an hour later when I exited my station and I saw the same man! This is surprising because there are many trains and many stations he could have taken, but we ended up at the same one. Keep in mind, my station is a residential one – it’s not a popular destination.
We are strong and we can do this, let’s be different.
Why is it so hard to drop the bad habits or addictions we know are bad for us? Why do we hold on to the material things instead of infinite feelings and emotions from loved ones?