Breaking Silence

Over these past few months, did you ever want to say something about all that is going on in our country, but held back?

Held back because you didn’t want to offend or hurt anyone. You didn’t want to engage the hostility. The anger.

So you remained silent.

I held back.

I said very little, to nothing at all. I pushed down my thoughts, ideas and feelings.

But the problem with saying nothing was, it looked like I didn’t care about all that was and continues to go on in our communities and country.

And while I believe their is great strength in silence, I also know silence can hurt.

So after much time to reflect, I break my silence to say,

I believe, with all my heart, in the goodness that lives insides each and everyone of us.

I believe that in spite of all the ways you might express your views differently from me, we wish each other only all the very best.

I believe that even though it doesn’t seem that way, you would be there for me, and I would be there for you no matter how ugly, bad or contentious ‘it’ may seem.

Like Viktor Frankl described in “Man’s Search for Meaning,” when those closest to death and in most need of sustenance in the concentration camps would give their one daily piece of bread to another who looked stronger and more likely to live.

That beyond race, class, sexual persuasion, vitriolic exchange and even man’s inhumanity to man, our very human essence rises up for each other.

Do you agree their is great strength in silence? Do you agree that there is great strength in breaking silence? Do you agree, that beyond all the personal and political preferences, we really would be there for each other? I'd love to hear your ideas in the comments below, especially if they are different than mine.