Whether the issue is race, education, prejudice, social change, or youth development, Soul Water Rising approaches the work at hand from the same, consistent source. We hold an un-abating faith in, and understanding of, the nature of the universe, and how that truth acts within us as humans to manifest itself in our strengths and weaknesses. Along with a dominant theme regarding the oneness of life, we emphasize that much in the way of our social issues has at its roots, not physical or biological differences between persons, but the nature of the energy that lies within and passes between persons.
In this manner, such dynamics as racism, sexism, national conflict, violence and abuse all share a commonality that it is crucial for us to understand: that the battle is a kinetic one, not a genetic one. The passage of energy as attitudes between persons and across generations and cultures is that which most elementally ails us, as opposed to physiological differences between groups. In understanding this, we gain a window of opportunity to begin reconstructing not only our language, but also our ideas. These transformed ideologies and modes of communication are a most promising tool for breaking into a new stride of healing, relating and growing, as cultural groups, individuals and institutions, and as a human circle.
Not unrelated is the truth that the cultural heritage and realities of any people are valid simply by virtue of the existence of those people, regardless of whether a given society or worldview perceives them as being minority, underdeveloped, third world, foreign, or flawed. In particular, it is vital that we recognize that a person's holistic health is a radiation from the seeds of identity, and that healthy identity cannot be achieved without an integrity between a person's past and present in a generational sense, which then allows for the fulfillment of a person's future. Particularly with regard to those culturally isolated, stigmatized, or caricatured persons and groups who face conflict between what they are and what society expects them to be, there is an obvious truth we need to face. We must champion a committed effort to nurture continuity in the generational chain of cultural truths that would allow people to truly have clarity about whom they are, and thus command their own fulfillment on Earth.
People with clarified identities, as ordained by their own spirit and purpose, rather than by the cultural values of those who would seek to bring about their conformity or suppress that in them which is found discomforting or devalued, have the tools and material to build healthy individual systems. And by virtue of the circular nature of life, healthy individuals bequeath healthy families, which bequeath healthy communities, and ultimately healthy societies. And surely the same domino effect works in reverse, so that a nation healthy in spirit, which recognizes the truth of its people's oneness and values its diverse expressions of life, powerfully engenders the same in its parts that make up the society whole.
In this manner, if a nation wishes to build itself, strengthen itself, heal itself, and to truly construct a sense of national stability and security, then it will see to certain tasks with vigor in creating new social norms: those psychological overseers of change. Among such efforts, it will ensure that where there exists an identifiable group of persons with generational chronic social struggles, stemming from historical oppression, that nation will not only hold itself accountable, but will act with self-interest. Self-interest born of the realization that where there exist wounds, neglect, and struggle to the greatest degree, that is where we have a national vulnerability to the gravest degree. That such flaws are not contained within such groups due to some particular assumed inferiority, but are certain to spread throughout the nation whole because they exist as energy which knows no genetic or physical boundary, racial or otherwise. Not only this, but that chronic social illnesses within dominated groups, are to great degree evidence of precedent cultural illnesses within the dominating groups which have hosted the devalued group's manner of evolution while under their violating influence.
Similarly, where we fail to invest in such chronically suppressed groups, such as women, the economically impoverished, the differentially-abled, the young, and the elderly, we court our own eventual social bankruptcy. Again, by virtue of the circle of life, what we allow on earth eventually and always becomes us. This is a truth for all times and inescapable. Whatever military, technological, or financial fortresses we have built as a nation are only a rampart that serves toward our future fall from heights, unless we gain grasp of our need for repair of our human energy and social relationships. A house divided against itself may not stand, but more inevitable is that where an indivisible social ecology, such as humanity, acts as though divisible, deception is high and destruction is certain.
All these truths bear reason for a worldwide campaign to reconstruct the way in which we do human business. Central to this is that we finally cherish and uphold the cultural realities of all people, so that in allowing ourselves to receive them in their fullness we open the doorways to our own fullness. Any suppression of another, whether passive or active, requires a focus that precludes the possibility of our own blossoming. As a clear illustration: when we are no longer threatened by the social ascension of a historically devalued group, then we will have come to understand that the rising of that group is in fact the rising of us all. For the waves of an ocean rise together and fall not alone, and surely we are ocean human. And whatever changes endured by those accustomed to their privileges, the restoration of healthy living will come to be in effect. For true emancipation awaits a deeper act among us than legislation of law.
Soul Water Rising asserts that all things in the physical and spiritual world are not only connected but are in fact of the same being. It is the degree of our recognition and manifestation of this truth that ultimately determines our well being as people and groups. This belief in the oneness of life and humanity provides a window for explaining the social ailments of our contemporary communities, families, and young, and for shaping resolutions to those ailments. All who support this mission are devoted to helping our communities stand tall in ways in which we are now at less than full height, and to maintain the dignity and continuity of those aspects of our long-enduring cultures that bring us closer to our divinely endowed potential.
JAIYA JOHN PERSONAL STATEMENT
As a writer and artist, I feel creative self-expression is a prime vehicle for personal growth. As a poet and teacher, I recognize the power of ultimately demanding Love and compassion to create change. As a social scientist, I understand that identity is at the core of how a person chooses to live, as well as her or his motivation and choices in that life. As an observer of humans I have glimpsed the capacity of self-interest as an untapped motivator for selfless, communal attitudes and behavior. As a descendant of Africa and of Native America, I blatantly reject anything less than true emancipation and realization of the cultural, ancestral spirit of every person. As a child of foster care and adoption, I assert that it is the content and energy of all of one's relationships that results in the character of each single person. As a U.S. American, I strive toward a society that would both live out its ideals and find the courage to re-examine those ideals. As a spirit, and thereby a strand in the web of life, I am humbled to the truth of our inextricable interdependence with each other, with our universe, and with all in it, whether or not we like it. It is on this warm draft of compassionate servitude that I am carried forward.
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