The original “Wizard of Oz” movie was both childhood delight and terror for me. I usually had nightmares after watching it, those flying monkeys, am I right? And I would dream of being snatched out of my home by the witch just as I was walking into my parents’ bedroom – whoosh – I’d be witch-napped. It’s a classic to be sure and was remade as “The Wiz” in 1975 for Broadway as – according to Wikipedia – “an urbanized retelling in the context of African-American culture” – and later adapted for the big screen in 1978 starring notably Michael Jackson and Diana Ross.
There was another live production in late 2015 of “The Wiz” and while I was enjoying the music, energy and story – sans flying monkey nightmares, thank goodness – I was aware of a shift that had occurred at some point when I see another human no matter their color of skin. I was looking beyond surface differences to the being inside much in the same way that other animal species do and that energetic transformation was profound. These were other earthlings, the same as I was, who were celebrating music and a good story and we were, as a group, connected via the commonality of sound vibration, an immensely healing modality.
We live in a culture where we are inundated with references to and thoughts and behavior based on our differences in skin color as humans. A famous experiment in 1968 by Jane Elliott – “Blue Eyes – Brown Eyes” – revealed that we can create belief systems about each other based on physical difference which turns otherwise neutral environments into immediately discriminatory ones. Even by commenting on the difference in skin color as we do we raises barriers between us and the polarization cycle continues. From Jiddu Krishnamurti an excellent quote – “When you separate yourself by belief, by nationality, by tradition, it breeds violence. Because you are separating yourself from the rest of mankind.”
The funny thing is that all other animal species don’t relate to each other – or us in this way. If you have animal companions think how it would be if they one day said to you – “Ewww! You don’t have fur like I do” or “Where ARE your wings” and then separated themselves from us because of our differences. They are masterful at not ignoring diversity but simply moving beyond it – as if it doesn’t exist. Which – as an earthling, it doesn’t.
We’ve done terrible, terrible things to each other and to other animals simply because we think others are different and then move to the place of “us” and “them” in a hierarchical way. And what we fail to realize in every single instance is that because of being like separate strands in the same strong rope and our energetic inclusion with all beings, we are doing it to ourselves. The unraveling of even one strand of the rope weakens the entire rope. It can’t hold things together or lift heavy burdens without every single strand being exactly the same energetically and yet physically separate.
It is impossible to travel to any country on this planet without encountering subjugation by some of our species of others of our species – it has happened to all ethnicities either personally or via their ancestors. And now is the time for non-attachment to any historical wrongs. Our focus on the past– especially on the multi-directional ripple effects connected to it – will continue to affect all of us unless we redirect and regroup together as earthlings. It keeps us acting and thinking individually and collectively from this wounded place, perpetuating the cycle. We need each other more than our differences pull us apart. By choosing to bypass those outside characteristics as animals always do we will find the soul inside and the human experience attached to that soul who just may need our help and compassion. Imagine yourself as the color of Earthling which, looking in the mirror Nature holds up for us every day in her divine wisdom is a rainbow after all, the individual colors of which aren’t the point – the light of the rainbow itself is the point. Photo credit: Jared and the Climbing Rope by Jared Tarbell, resized.