How Are You Moving CLOSER...
...instead of further, from those who are different than you?
The world feels like a LOT right now. I’ve admittedly been a little quiet online through my blog and podcast, as I’ve been taking a season to be more fully present in the life right in front of me (and I just finished celebrating my entire month of turning 40!) Also, the noise during this election season has given me pause to be yet another voice screaming into the void. It’s loud enough around here, so I’ve been holding back, staying curious, and keeping a lot of thoughts to myself.
But here we are, on the final days before a major political election in the U.S. And no matter where you find yourself in support of either major candidate, I can imagine we all have one thing in common: EXHAUSTION.
We are tired of the hateful banter between politicians, the blaming and the shaming and the dehumanizing. We are weary from the emotional and even physical toll it has taken on our bodies, our minds, and our relationships. It’s easy to want to check out and shut down at this point, to tune out all the noise, and to go into hiding until 2025. No one could blame you, really.
But I have a question for you…
How are you moving CLOSER to those who are different than you, instead of further away?
When we isolate and surround ourselves with only people who look, speak, think, and vote like we do, we can become calloused to the comments that degrade and make “othering” a normal part of policital conversations.
When you don’t personally take time to know people who are immigrants, it’s too easy to blame them for the U.S.’s economic problems.
When you have never had to make a life or death decision for a patient as a healthcare provider, it’s too easy to blame doctors for "incompetence” when it comes to complex laws that tie their hands from providing optimal health care.
When you aren’t on the front lines teaching in a public school with limited resources and little support, it’s too easy to blame teachers for the poor educational outcomes in our education systems.
When you’ve been privileged your whole life as a person who has never needed to justify your worth professionally or socially, it’s too easy to blame women and people of color and the LGBTQ community for speaking out about the injustices they routinely face.
When you have never been a law enforcement officer or veteran, it’s too easy to think you know the best way to serve and defend our communities and our country.
When you get all your political news from a single source, it’s too easy to think every headline is telling the whole truth.
How are you moving CLOSER to those who are different than you, instead of further away?
When a recent campaign rally included degrading comments about the beautiful island of Puerto Rico, I didn’t look away… Instead, I looked into the eyes of our Puerto Rican teachers at our school the next day. Their resilience inspires me.
When dehumanizing comments about Hispanic immigrants are made, I don’t look away… I look to my friends from Mexico, Venezuela, and Cuba to learn from their journeys and their experiences of coming to the U.S. Their stories change me.
When racist comments are made towards people of color, I don’t look away… I look inward to examine my own privilege and to take honest inventory of my possible role in perpetuating a system of injustice. I take opportunities to have difficult conversations with black friends, and to learn from their lived experiences. Their perspectives humble me.
Let me stop here and clarify… these are the things I’m working on, but I certainly fail regularly. I can only instinctively see things through the eyes of who I am - a middle aged (?!), white, heterosexual, Christian, married, mother and a middle-upper class educated healthcare professional. Those are the views that mostly inform my first impressions… But I am recognizing that I have to intentionally stay curious about those who have a different world view, instead of defaulting only to my own experiences.
We have so much to learn from each other.
You are not sacrificing your own beliefs and values to learn about people who are different than you. It is okay to question things you’ve only ever believed and to allow the lived experiences of others to broaden your world view. You don’t have to change who you are when you take a step closer to someone who is vastly different than you.
And more often than not, moving closer to those who are different, doesn’t weaken your beliefs… it only strengthens your compassion.
This is not toxic positivity. It’s certainly not toxic empathy.
It is loving our neighbors in a complex world.
It is admitting we don’t have all the answers.
It is considering every single human as worthy of dignity and respect.
The way we speak and act during these tense political days informs the person we are becoming… Be the person that moves closer to those who are different than you…not further away.
With love and gratitude,
Dr. Peek
P.S. I’m not here to tell you how to vote (if you know me personally, you already know… and if you don’t but want to have an honest conversation, I’m open to doing that in a more personal format)… just please, VOTE. Your voice matters.