Group Conscience

This year from sunset October 11 until after nightfall on October 12, many people, Jewish and non-Jewish marked the Jewish High Holy Day, Yom Kippur with fasting and prayer. While I have heard of Yom Kippur my whole life, I really never knew the significance of the holiday. That is, until Washington Post syndicated columnist, Dana Milbank corrected this oversight in my cultural education.

Like many, I’m sure, I thought the Day of Atonement was singular, when individuals made amends for their numerous oversights throughout the year. The theory goes, when the body is uncomfortable – no food, multiple prayer services, no perfume, etc. for the day – then the soul is also uncomfortable and when one “feels” this pain, they can better appreciate the pain felt by others. Thanks to Milbank, I now understand that while the experience is individual, the empathy lesson is meant to go far beyond the individual. Indeed, the holiday is meant to awaken a sort of “group consciousness” to the suffering we have all inflicted directly and indirectly. He goes on (very eloquently, I might add) to connect this collective responsibility to the current political climate, calling us all out for the historical somnambulism that has allowed political corruption, incivility and divide to fill a gaping void left by lack of community involvement and oversight.

He’s right, of course, nothing happens overnight. Years and years have led us to now and it will no doubt take years and years to fix… if, and only if we all choose to bear some responsibility for the brokenness AND we all begin work to repair it. Big task. Isolated to politics? Nope. From loss of community to mass incarceration, perpetual war to addiction and increasingly medicalized death, we ALL bear some responsibility for allowing cruel isolation, stigma, indiscriminate killing, and electronic anesthesia to become our cultural norms. Is it any wonder employees feel stretched, students feel squeezed, families feel disconnected? All this puts even more pressure on our work and education structures. Admitting it is the first step toward recovery. Consistently acting on that admission is a pathway to long-term, sustainable health and wellness… for our culture, for our workplaces, for our homes, and for our souls.

Let’s be the generation that takes the first step; let’s turn it around… maybe by looking back, maybe by focusing forward on the positive power of community. We can be collectively responsible for joy as well as misery. How? Let me tell you a nifty story about a hungry man and an elephant…

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/shame-on-trump-shame-on-us/2016/10/14/841e54e8-9214-11e6-a6a3-d50061aa9fae_story.html?utm_term=.b9679e3ee213