If I'm not Everyone, am I No One?

So a while back (wow, over two months ago) I was very triggered by a post I read on Facebook.

So triggered, in fact, I spent a few hours trying to figure out how to say "Fuck off!" and still keep my positive, uplifting poster status.

Looks like I figured it out. (grin)

Then I spent a few more hours trying to decide what I really wanted to say about that post. Because in order for my response to make sense, I'd have to regurgitate the post itself. Which I didn't want to do, because I didn't want to spread the harm.

I also didn't want to REACT. React is a habit, an automatic response.

I want to ACT.

So I have written and rewritten and overwritten. And here is the truth for this moment in time.

  

First, here is the summary of my perspective of the triggering post:

 Before people started shouting "black lives matter," "gay pride," "black history," and "feminism," No One said "all lives matter," "straight pride," "white history," or "egalitarian." Therefore, any who do embrace the "all lives matter" mantra are racist, elitist, and/or entitled expletives, and we need to straighten out our panties, because we're in the 21st century now, boy, and we're gonna get what's comin' to us.

Firstly, I can think of a few spiritual leaders, authors, and public speakers who might disagree  with the premise. Plenty of people have spoken to the fact that All Lives Matter, even if they didn't have a hashtag or banner with that specific phrase! One pretty famous one would be "Love one another as I have loved you."

Another - "All we need is Love." Or a different phrase, which I first learned from fantasy books, "There is no one true way."

But if that were all that pushed my buttons, it would have been easily (and beneficially) typed. With time for a few more examples.

Instead, this post triggered something deeper - an anger, a rage, the last straw on the frustration pile. And in order to ACT instead of REACT, I had to figure out what it was that really offended me. Because, I know if I'm feeling offended it means there's something unresolved in me. (Mirror, mirror, on the screen.)

Obviously, it took me awhile. (over two months.) But I finally figured it out.

I was feeling excluded!

It often happens in commercials - "everyone knows…" "Nobody wants…" "Anyone can..." "It's time for YOU to…"

…this, that, or the other thing.

But commercials are easy to waft away. I understand their aim, their game, and I ain't gonna play.

But the world game? The human game? The living on this earth game? That I do want to play.

Well, I'm still here, aren't I?

And since I am playing (read, breathing,) I want to be represented. I want to stand up and be counted.

And I am not "Everyone." I am rarely "Anyone." And I'm definitely NOT "No one."

And I think blanket statements like the triggering post are harmful. They are mean. They are bullying.  And they imply there is only "Us" - the gloriously amazing people who are proclaiming these specific truths; and "Them" - the terrible, horrible people who aren't.

And that's a lie.

It's not just "Us" and "Them".

There is never a blanket of "No One" or "EveryOne."

There is not only a "Right" or a "Left."

There is more than "Black" and "White."

I will not allow the world to be boxed in like that. Not my world. In my world, we have choices.

So I am acting, I am soapboxing, I am standing up for we who are NOT "Us" or "Them," but "Me" and "All."

I am writing on behalf of the neutral, the inclusive, the unique, and the equal.

I speak for "All Lives" and "Equality" and "Sex pride" (because that includes desire AND gender choice.)

Because history is not black or white, dear ones. It is red. Red with the blood of differing opinions.

Red because people took back their rights but refused to give them to others.

Red from the annihilation of more races, species, cultures, and beliefs than we will ever know existed.

History is one long bloody red battle, interspersed with art and technological advances. 

Matriarchal, Patriarchal, Dictatorial, Democratic Red.

And I don't want to be a part of that. I don't want to play that game.

I want to play a game where everyone participates, even if it is to agree not to play together. There is nothing wrong or bad with not liking each other, for whatever reason - skin color, voice pitch, the way I wear my hair. You get to feel whatever you want!

And this is the 21st century. We have the technology to reach almost everyone. We can share or not as we choose. We each get to believe what is right for us without trying to force our beliefs onto others.  And if we don't want to interact with those who believe differently, we don't have to. We don't have to convert, or eradicate, or consume, or subjugate - ourselves or others!.

We have the space and the ability to be ourselves, whatever our life, pride, history, or right.

Why have people like me never before said "All Lives Matter?"

Because we never thought we NEEDED to. We just assumed all the awesome beings in the world thought like us; that acceptance and diversity were part of life, and that we could celebrate ourselves and our differences without having to make a special law for it. And yes, we knew that not everyone thought that way, but the important people did, and surely all of being-kind would eventually come to realize that every single member matters.

Because all lives do matter. I don't have to agree with someone for them to matter. I just accept that he/she/it does matter. Because I do.

So, if you're like me - Not No One, or Every One, but Some One -  you do believe that ALL beings matter. In all ways. And you're looking forward to the day when this is, once more, something that does not NEED to be stated, because it is universally assumed.

Because we're all playing the same game.

The Long Game.

The Game of Life.

Thank you for being you.

I hope you have a great day.

-Lila