“When the winds of change blow, some people build walls and others build windmills.” ~Chinese Proverb
I returned from the U.S. yesterday, after spending a week with my first grandchild. It was an utterly joyful experience. Joyful and hopeful.
But during that same week—little Peyton’s first week of life—came loathsome news of death. Two black men shot by police, videos that sicken the soul showing the carnage, and now, five dead police officers and seven wounded in an intentionally planned sniper attack in Dallas.
It left me pondering the emotional and psychological ramifications of the widening divide in the world today. The long-term ramifications, because my children and their children will have to deal with the fallout of a lot of short-term thinking by the powerful—and not so powerful—of the world.
The marginalized masses are part of the divide and they are vocalizing their outrage. This is particularly true of Trump supporters, one of whom sounded off in my presence.
I was shocked to experience in person the anger, the vitriolic generalizations and assumptions, about which I have read; it’s frightening. I felt like I was watching a pot of water just about to break into a roiling boil, with Trump turning up the heat.
Donald Trump launched his presidential campaign by promising to build a wall—a very tall wall, a YUGE wall—between the United States and Mexico.
He launched with a promise of division. And stodgily sticks to that claim still. This despite all the expert input and assessments that it is not only infeasible, but also just plain dumb.
That’s one way that walls manifest—xenophobia—and another is stubbornness.
Windmills, on the other hand, do not divide, they provide. They propel. They engage. They use the winds to create, not separate.
When the winds of change blow, we get to choose where we’ll put our effort and focus.
And right now? Those winds are whipping themselves up into a mighty storm; your best defense is how you’ll prepare for it.
Windmill or wall.
It’s an important choice.
