What Is It We're Trying Not To Think About?

There are a great number of things we desperately don't want to think about. That may sound like hyperbole, but since we're usually successful in not thinking about things we don't want to think about, the number of things on that list may be larger than... well... larger than we want to think about.

But let's draw this wandering claim down to earth and tie it to something. Shall we start with the Cultural Revolution? Not being Chinese, this is not a delicate topic for me, however I was inspired to write this reflection as I read this morning about Youqin Wang and her efforts to document the lives of people in China who were killed during those dark years. Here are two chilling quotes from the article:
1) "It's not known exactly how many people died, but estimates range from 500,00 to several million."
2) "...and while a handful of the people who participated in the violence have apologized..."

Let those numbers sit next to each other in your mind. Maybe a million people died. And a handful of people have spoken up to apologize. Welcome to human nature at its nadir, to my mind. Where are the other people responsible for that uncountable carnage? My guess (and I'm comfortable with it) is that they're trying not to think about it too much. Many of them quite successfully, though surely not all.

All well and good since we westerners don't hail from China. But let's make it personal. We'll do so by means of a three-course meal.

First Course: The Appetizer

The full article is here, but here's a snippet worth pondering for two reasons:

It is always hard to draw a line between the wickedness of the times and the evil of individuals, especially in the case of the Cultural Revolution, and when presented with such a grave issue, most people have chosen to keep silent and forget.

[Editorial aside: The author of this blog is nodding vigorously]

On this point, Wang Youqin loves to tell a story she heard from a science teacher. The teacher worked on a farm during the Cultural Revolution, and he was in charge of a herd of cattle. There was a patch of thick grasses below a big willow tree, which was a favorite food of the cattle, and, one day, the villagers slaughtered an old cow under the tree because it was too old to work; ever since then none of the cows would go anywhere near the willow tree even though the grass was delicious. The chickens, however, upon seeing the innards of their fellow hens chucked into the yard, would all hurry over and peck at the guts of their own kind.

“So mankind is somewhere between cows and chickens,” Wang says. “But now that we have a choice, we need to decide whether to be the cow or the chicken.”

Did you see it? I am betting not. Sure, there was heavy food for thought there, regarding humans and human nature... whether mankind will remember or forget what has been done to other humans. What we have done to other humans. And that is indeed the main point. But for those who eat meat regularly, a second heavy thought regarding food should have left us with indigestion: The cows missed their dead. They abhorred the slaughter of their own. Sure, one may pooh-pooh it as a lonely anecdote, but my own father once related to me a very similar story. He once witnessed the killing of a cow by bullet. After the cow hit the ground, all the other cows gathered around and silently encircled their departed fellow cow. And stared at it.

Ummm, I didn't want to think about that while eating my Big Mac. And yet we do. Eat the meat, that is. As for the cows? We try not to think about them too much. More serious consideration might leave us feeling too guilty to enjoy the meat. And that would be a shame.

That just goes to show how many times a day we avoid thinking about any number of things. However the vegetarian digression seems out of place, it being so trivial when compared to the evils of the Cultural Revolution. But that was just the appetizer. The next dish served will not similarly disappoint.

Second Course: A National Disgrace

We Americans have our own "Cultural Revolutions" that have been both ignored and forgotten. Sordid history that we don't think about too often. Or was it never? An example (but let's not forget that there are others!)... Watch this TED talk and tell me if we've honored our treaties with the native Americans who owned America for thousands of years before we Europeans came along. Oooh, have I touched a soft spot? A log we don't want to turn over?

Here's a picture from that TED talk. A picture we oughtn't forget.

That's a map including the land that the Lakota Indians legally own. Never seen it before? If we don't recognize it, then we have successfully forgotten what our forefathers didn't want us to remember. (I am sure there area a lot of grandparents in China hoping their offspring will be equally forgetful.)

Here are some words from that TED talk. Words we oughtn't forget.

"1980: the longest running court case in US history, the Sioux nation vs. The United States, was ruled upon by the US Supreme Court. The court determined that when the Sioux resettled on the reservations and seven million acres of their land were opened up to prospectors and homesteaders, the terms of the second Fort Laramie treaty had been violated. The court stated that the Black Hills were illegally taken..."

The facts, friends, are cold on this matter. It's their land. And we took it. Illegally. Our own Supreme Court said so. But we'll forget the map and the ruling. Just as have our forefathers before us. The Lakota Indians are still waiting for us to remember. But we won't. We're trying not to think about it.

This is tough stuff to stomach, and those wrongs lay heavy on my heart when I drove through that land myself just last summer. But there is at least that wonderful out: It's a national problem, and not one I, as an individual, can remedy on my own. That's very convenient thinking, and it does help things go down more smoothly. But one dish remains to be served.

Third Course: It Gets Personal

Jesus called us to take up our crosses. I know a few people who have really gotten closer to this kind of radical life. But I haven't. Have you? There is an awful lot about my life that does not reflect the radical teachings of Jesus. Do you feel the same? Here's a word: Incarnational. We love to talk it. Jesus didn't stay in heaven. Jesus became nothing. Became like us ants, as one analogy works it. Yada yada yada. But that yada yada is not derisive of Jesus. Yada yada is for me. For us. Because it's so many words. We say it and love it. But most of us, myself included, don't do it. I live in a comfortable suburb outside Chicago. Living incarnationally in the inner city? Yeah. Didn't happen. I'm just very much in favor of it. In theory.

We like to leave big problems as theoretical. National. Nothing I can do. In practice, however, the solution is personal. Individual. Each of us responding as Jesus would. And therein lies the problem, because my life doesn't look nearly enough like the life of Jesus. That's something I'd rather not think about it, and I certainly don't want to reminded of it, either!

But people have this annoying habit of breaking into our protective amnesia. On the national scene, Wang Youqin reminds China of their past. Aaron Huey (of that TED talk) reminds us Americans of our own. Aaron, it is worth noting, incarnationally went and dwelt among the Lakota. Shared in their suffering. In doing so, he proves that theory can become practice, if we're willing to give up our own comforts. That reminder is annoying.

On the personal scene, occasionally a Jesus freak (or a Lakota freak) will challenge us to become more like Jesus (perhaps among Native Americans) and radically enter into the suffering of our world as ambassadors for Christ. Our response as Americans and as Christians is well described by Henri Nouwen, who here encapsulates the distinctive character of secular prophets Wang and Aaron as well as the Christian variety—and then goes on to describe our typical response to such prophets when they cross our paths.

"There are people in our midst who have allowed the pain of the world to enter so deeply into their hearts that it has become their vocation to remind us constantly, mostly against our will, of the sins of this world. There are even a few saints who have become so much a part of the human condition and have identified themselves to such a degree with the misery of their fellow human beings that they refuse happiness for themselves as long as there are suffering people in this world. Although they irritate us and although we would like to dispose of them by labeling them masochists or doomsday prophets, they are indispensable reminders that no lasting healing will ever take place without a solidarity of heart. these few "extremists" or "fanatics" force us to ask ourselves how many games with play with ourselves and how many walls we keep erecting to prevent ourselves from knowing and feeling the burden of human solidarity."
– Henri Nouwen, Reaching Out