Twenty-five thousand Texans have signed a petition to peacefully secede from the United States of America. I understand. I\u2019ve spent much of my life trying inwardly to secede from places and groups (including Texas) that I didn\u2019t agree with.<\/p>\n
In the middle of writing Big Topics at Midnight<\/i> I realized how much energy I\u2019d spent trying to distance myself from parts of me or my world that embarrassed me\u2014my wealth, white skin, cultural Christianity, patriarchy and even Texas. I wrote about this struggle in Big Topics at Midnight:<\/i><\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I finally noticed that we had more money than many, I was embarrassed by my family\u2019s upper-middle class and, later, upper class status. For a time, I wanted to give my family money away, not wanting to be wealthy in a world where so many had so little. Simultaneously, I wanted to keep all of the options that money gave me.<\/em><\/p>\n Likewise, I had recently realized how white my world had always been. As I heard story after story of experiences and perspectives of people with darker shades of skin, I wanted to rip off my white skin and the white-colored glasses that had kept me unaware of signs of racism during childhood and into my adult years.<\/em><\/p>\n The glow from the streetlight gave the room an eerie light as I considered other parts of myself that had faced the knife. It wasn\u2019t easy for me to admit being a Christian, either. Jesus didn\u2019t embarrass me, but far too many Christians did. Too often the radical heart of the faith was usurped by traditional US cultural values.<\/em><\/p>\n As a strong girl turned woman, I thought I\u2019d avoided sexism. In the dark of night I realized that I\u2019d been largely unaware of the ways I\u2019d absorbed patriarchal beliefs throughout my life. I\u2019d grown to respect my use of reason and logic\u2014the skills honored in my family\u2014and ignored my subtler intuition, gut and heart. I\u2019d slipped unaware into the patriarchal way of valuing only one part of me. In addition, I was disgusted that it took over thirty years for me to discover how slowly liberation had come to my home state\u2014married Texan women didn\u2019t even have full legal rights until the late 1960s.<\/em><\/p>\n I felt full of holes, like a hunk of Swiss cheese. So much of who I was brought me shame. Projecting that onto Texas and onto the United States of America at the height of her world power, I tried to increase the distance between myself and the culturally affirmed values I no longer accepted.\u201d1<\/sup><\/em><\/p>\n A few Texans want to secede from the union just as I wanted to secede from Texas. When I finally woke up, I realized that this separation was in direct conflict with my heart, faith and values of living in harmony within our global neighborhood. The only way I could live a just life in our diverse world was to first accept the diversity that is me. Not blindly. Not trying to pretend that nothing is amiss in our world. But consciously, with open eyes.<\/p>\n We don\u2019t have the luxury to cut and bail whenever we don\u2019t agree. Our hurting world is teetering too close to midnight for that. We will all thrive together or crash together on this one planet we share. I am a Texan. Texans are Americans. Our world depends on us learning how to get freed from the \u201cdistress [and separation] of our oppression and to listen to each other in a present and conscious manner.\u201d2<\/sup><\/p>\n The time to run away with our toys and hide out with others like us has come to an end. And really, the world is a fascinating playground if we can do the work to \u201cbuild effective relationships and sustain true alliances.\u201d3<\/sup><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/sup><\/p>\n Twenty-five thousand Texans have signed a petition to peacefully secede from the United States of America. I understand. I\u2019ve spent much of my life trying inwardly to secede from places and groups (including Texas) that I didn\u2019t agree with. In the middle of writing Big Topics at Midnight I realized how much energy I\u2019d spent … <\/p>\n\n