What if the only thing someone knew about you was what you’ve done so far in 2025 and they wrote an article titled, “The story of (your name).” Would that be a complete telling of who you are? How often do we run with the little information we have and then create the rest of the story in our mind based on that? Instead, can we consider there are stories beyond the stories, aka backstories that would help us better understand one another? Maybe we’d even find our way back to the essential story of ultimate longing that returns us to each other as one? But who has all that time to go through all of that? We generally live with little blips of information and much of our material world depends on that. Whether politics, the health industry, or general news – it’s all there to jump our nervous systems and then send us away with what we think is all we need to know. Are we better off with just having that bite-sized, spoon-fed portion or would it serve us and humanity if we took the time to follow the fruit to seed and digest the full story?
For those of us that like to dive into the twisting paths of human nature, perspective on nearly any topic becomes more nuanced and more interesting with investigation. When learning what lies behind what we see, we often can’t help but be changed. Most of us know the story of the Wizard of Oz and the big and terrible wizard who successfully kept everyone frightened of him. But when Dorothy and friends discovered who the wizard really was and that he too, just wanted to get home, the story took an interesting turn. Since the wizard had no magical powers, he too, was stuck in Oz and had created an oppressive rule based on lack of real control. The outcome was a full manipulation of reality and putting everyone in his trance. As noted in a 2019 article written by bbc.com:
“The message is that people will march behind any authority figure who makes a splash, however undeserving they may be. It’s a subversive message in 2019, and it was even more pointed in 1939, when fascist dictators were stomping across Europe.”
We’re in a very uncomfortable and painful period of our human history. And it’s worth noting, we’ve been through other very painful times and have made it through and we will again and again. We’ve made it through by the courage of those who boldly spoke out and organized in the many different ways that change requires. European history of fascist dictatorship is getting a bit too uncomfortable as a playbook to our younger history.
For those who have experienced any form of marginalization, the clear message has been that one-size fits only the privileged. For those who have been oppressed, the oppressor is obvious. For those who have fought for their land from colonizers, the crime of othering and killing to create a convincing narrative is a traceable pattern. For those who have experienced a lack of equity in their everyday lives, there is no mystery that supremacy wishes to keep division for power. For our LGBTQ+, Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) communities, we’ve already been living with the discomfort of inequality that has largely led to cultural resilience. I’ve seen that no greater than in the stories of Palestinians in Gaza who have remained committed to their land in spite of the worldwide efforts to blatantly sustain the addictive pattern of ethnic cleansing for presumed dominance and safety. Those who’ve been side-swiped by supremacy already know what it feels like to live on the border of injustice and inhumanity. Some part of our existence has not been provided a seat at the dominant table and yet we still figured out how to keep going while losing our loved ones.
For those who are just starting to feel uncomfortable and concerned about what will happen next due to our political powers, we welcome you to our table. Not that our table is better or cleaner, but our life’s experience has emboldened a form of resilience in the way a concrete slab of sidewalk is pushed several feet upwards by the slow movement and growth of a tree’s roots.
It’s time that we join in conversation and better understand that the stories beyond all of our stories is that we are one. We have the capacity and potential to thrive as a collective on this planet. But we must ditch the trance of separation that is cultivated on every front for the purpose of us forgetting. It’s generally so far removed from reality that this sheer notion of oneness sounds foolish. But as noted in so many spiritual texts, the message of unity comes up again and again. For those of use who listen with different ears/hearts to popular music or contemporary stories, we hear a universal theme hidden in the material-bound messages. It feels scary at first to be this open because it goes against what many of us have been taught. But then something magical happens. Seeing beyond the system of separation initiates a pathway of liberation. Rather than clinging to a survival thread that says we have to stick to our own to exist, a higher message arises from within that remembers we’re all interconnected.
When we can feel the truth of that, we shift the narrative towards coexistence. This threatens those who say, “you’re naive and one day you’ll grow out of that.” Instead, the more I understand why people doubt and shame others, the more free and relieved I feel to echo the message of collective liberation: We aren’t free until everyone is free. And for those who say that will never happen, simply means you’re doing a good job agreeing with the dominant force that aims to encourage misunderstanding and misinformation. Stop and consider why our natural happiness is constantly manipulated by external circumstance. Pause longer and remember that we live in a world that will always generate change and fluctuation and if we never look within we won’t know there’s a different message available. Rather than deplete every cell and support the weight of oppressive, traumatized forces, we can shift that partnership as one that has equal force working in collaboration to be seen, heard and deeply understood.
Every liberation movement, particularly in our recent century, has been seen as unpopular by dominant culture. And for a time, the message was that nothing will ever change. But then change happened, and the ones who steadily fought, understood the importance of the long haul of a movement. The ones who weren’t sure, later learned as the truth slowly came forward. And the ones who were working hard against liberation, often dug harder into their heels, waiting for the next moment to attack nature’s message.
It’s amazing to me that only as recently as 2020 did another conversation about actual reparations for our Black community reach a formal, broad discussion. Only to be a more uncomfortable topic by going back on what was proposed a year ago. I watched a documentary last week regarding the demolition of Black community in Wilmington in 1898 – Wilmington on Fire. A speaker suggested to be weary of money for reparations. Instead, seek institutional changes because at some point, the money will run out. What’s needed is systemic change. Once I considered that, it reminded me how important it is to not jump to the first thing you hear and assume one answer is the solution. There’s always more than meets the eye. Consider looking beyond the first thing you see and listening beyond the first thing you hear. It might help connect the dots to what felt like not enough. It might allow the mind to become more expansive, more compassionate, more caring and less judgmental.
Now, it’s not always a neat and tidy conclusion. Stories reveal their complexity and require a mind that can open again and again while assumption, accusation and acquiescence evade our focused efforts toward understanding someone better. Looking to pin down a forever perpetrator and a perfect victim creates a starting point where the mind will eliminate nuance. It’s the nature of a much too quickly assessed narrative thereby causing the abbreviated story to be all there is since our attention is short-lived. In the effort to land on a decision of who’s good and who’s evil, a story is often short-sided because we don’t end up asking enough times, “how did we get to the here, here, here and here?”
I first studied the Bhagavad Gita, a primary text in Yogic philosophy during my Yoga Teacher Training in 2009. This over 2,200 year old text is a very small portion inside of the epic poem, Mahabharata – one of the Sanskrit texts of ancient India. The Bhagavad Gita is the portion where Lord Krishna advises master archer Arjuna on the battlefield. This is a superbly useful text that describes the 3 main Yogic practices of Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga and Bhakti Yoga. But it wasn’t until studying the greater story of the Mahabharata that I felt a more comprehensive understanding and gain empathy for all the characters.
I had more insight into how the war being fought between cousins could even be possible. How efforts to try to stop unrighteous behavior could change someone. How being hurt or deceived could break the innocent mind and design perversion. Seeing the movie, Wicked in December had a similar effect on me with the “wicked witch.” It spoke of the power of othering someone to create distraction in order to conceal lies. A propaganda machine works hard to build a convincing, unquestioning narrative. It simultaneously encourages us to fall asleep in the trance of one, convenient, divisive story. So, it’s helpful for our brains, our nervous systems and our hearts when we humbly welcome the unknown, and loosen our ego’s grip on the screen of individual survival. Does this require that we all become more mindful with life observations and be open to greater contemplation in everyday life? What if we were to simply know there was more than meets the eye, and we found a way to love more than judge. To accept more than to think we should fix. To repair when something has broken. To let go when it’s time to and hold on when we know to. To uphold and support at the right time, to take down and resist at the others.
Watching “The Bibi Files” on February 23 at my studio as a co-host with IfNotNow Bay Area offered greater insight into Benjamin Netanyahu. I wasn’t aware of the force and rage of his wife Sarah and it changed the way I viewed Bibi. That nuance along with seeing his son following right in line with the family power of denial and arrogance felt unsettling. We may forget how much the state of Israel was against him before October 7th, how thousands were in the streets protesting his power. And we may have new ways to understand how October 7th even happened once we’re willing to study the course of events even of that year, let alone the last 76 years and 120 years in Israel/Palestine. I hadn’t been willing to look closer or more deeply until something no longer could add up. When pieces of truth starting falling out of the cracks of misinformation, I was ready to read them and open my heart and mind to a new story that was never shared during my Jewish upbringing. And because I had learned a different view, it required great effort and willingness to accept there was more beyond the story I held onto so tightly. I’ve spent every month since October 7, 2023 challenging the stories that I learned by listening to the stories I hadn’t. I needed to get as close to the bottom of how we got here and I’ve reached far enough within to have been changed.
New stories might bring up pain and discomfort, but this may be a symptom of growth rather than a message to bail. I heard someone mention in Peet’s coffee the other day that they tried to stop drinking coffee but they kept getting headaches. Instead of waiting for the headaches to disappear (which they traditionally do within 7 days once you’ve released the caffeine craving in your body), they preferred to just keep drinking coffee and ditch that crazy idea to ever stop. The same happens with fasting or doing a cleanse. At first, the body releases toxins and it can lead to all sorts of uncomfortable symptoms. But the body is just purging, not ending. When we know that going through a cleanse will mean a period of discomfort, we might be better prepped to get through it. One story might be that something terrible is happening! The deeper story is that actually, this is a good sign that the body is moving in a good direction to become healthier.
When we learn what has motivated and compelled a person to become who they are today, it shifts a narrative that would otherwise be one-dimensional. We may be open to hearing why resistance is necessary when no other response has allowed a change from the oppressor. And when the oppressor has worked hard to design the narrative that those resisting are terrorists, we can simply refer to our history to recognize the playbook of abuse of power. Europeans to Native Americans. White settlers to Black Africans. Israelis to Palestinians, and the list goes on and on. Without knowing this is a pattern, we simply give our trust to the dominant forces and never question a deeper understanding of what brought them to power.
My new favorite quote:
“The secret of a great success for which you are at a loss to account is a crime that has never been found out, because it was properly executed.”
often quoted as
‘Behind every great fortune lies a great crime’
Honoré de Balzac 1799–1850
Le Père Goriot (1835)
May we take deep breaths when learning of new stories and be willing to listen before we shut down possibility of what we don’t yet know. May we build bridges to diversity rather than walls of isolation. May we consider more ways to see joy and light in the selfless path, and feel the sting and teachings of the selfish path. We have the capacity as a sacred planet, to support every sentient being to thrive. We may never solve that natural mystery in this current period. But if compelled to follow the message arising from within the heart, we recognize we must choose to uphold goodness and trust that shedding light is useful in dark times.
Let’s stay connected,
Marc
