Loaded

Lately, in of my classes, we've been talking about person-hood and our own way of being. I've been intrigued by our conversations revolving, not just around person-hood, but the way that we choose to see others. We've been talking about how we often choose to see others in one of two ways: either as people or as as objects. The breakdown goes like this:

1. When we see others as people we acknowledge that they have hopes, fears, and a general longing to be liked and loved. These feelings are as real and as relevant as our own feelings.

2. When we see others as objects we tend to see them as obstacles in our way, vehicles that can be used to help us get what we want or irrelevancies that we'd rather not have to "deal with."

Fortunately, this information really touched me. Unfortunately, the reason it touched me is because I realized how often I see others as "objects." And honestly, that gun is loaded. It's loaded no matter who's holding it.

One of my very dear professors once told my class that we must realize that every person has the divine spark -- the image of God within them. Every.single.person. No matter how marred we think the image is within them, it's there because God created them in his own image.

I don't think this is just a "feel good message." I think it has important implications. At the core it affects how we see others. But, that core affects how we interact with others on a daily basis. It affects our political views. It affects our views about war. It affects our theology about providing for the marginalized and the poor. It affects how we treat our enemies.

And we can't be agents of good peace until we commit to seeing others as people and not as objects.

*The core of this information was gathered from my brain, duh. But, the technical parts were gathered from the book "Anatomy of Peace" by The Arbinger Institute. And now go listen to "Red Hands" by Walk Off the Earth...you know, "that gun is loaded, but it's not in my hands..."