Today I am moved by the voice of one of our elders in the work of social justice, Ruby Sales:
I grew up in the heart of Southern apartheid. [My] parents were spiritual geniuses who created a world and a language where the notion that I was inadequate or inferior or less-than never touched my consciousness. I grew up believing that I was a first-class human being and a first-class person, and [my] parents were spiritual geniuses who were able to shape a counterculture of black folk religion that raised us from disposability to being essential players in society.
Her words took my breath away. Imagine the challenge of parenting in the Jim Crow south, where everything about the surrounding culture implied the less-than-human status of black people. How would any of us have been able to succeed in giving our children a different message, no matter how loving and dedicated? “Spiritual geniuses” indeed.
Many of us grew up in circumstances where we were taught that we were disposable or less-than. Many of us continue to recover from that. But when I heard Ruby Sales’ testimony about her genius parents, something in me relaxed. They aren’t my parents, and her situation was not mine. We must not appropriate others’ cultural inheritance, especially when, like me, we come from a dominant culture.
Nonetheless, due to Sales’ generosity in sharing this image of her genius parents, I got to stand for a moment in their presence and receive something of their courage and love. And it was healing. Amazing Grace, indeed.
This is something that constellations does for us on a regular basis. By stepping into a larger system in solidarity with others, we can experience real human courage, accompaniment in mourning, a turn from blaming to taking responsibility, self-forgiveness for not being able to succeed against larger forces, and so much more. These are part of the fullness of human experience, and it is our shared human birthright to experience all of it.
But due to circumstance, we are often deprived of some critical human experiences. Even then, though, it belongs to us. In constellations, we actually re-discover this. For instance: parents who are spiritual geniuses (due to their own essential wholeness) and who taught us about our inherent worthiness no matter the larger cultural forces — this belongs to us, too.
I invite you to take a moment to enjoy that. I also warmly invite you to listen to the entire interview with this remarkable woman, and find out more about her incredible biography (read it here, or listen to it here).
What is your experience of knowing your deep worthiness, or discovering a critical human birthright that you’d formerly been lacking? I invite you to share on my blog, below.
Leave a Reply