“The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is keeping them ignorant.” ~ Maximilien Robespierre.

I have always been a lover of words.  Except once when I heard a new word, spoken in a sentence, by a person I had very little respect for.  She happened to be my boss.  She was the type of manager that gives managers a bad name.  She listened to gossip; preferred disciplinary action over getting to the facts; and had zero sympathy for employees who happened to have sick children and called in sick to take them to the E.R.  “Couldn’t she have the father take the child? Or her mother?”  So when she addressed us in a meeting one day, and said something about this being the new paradigm, I was mad that I didn’t know the word and had to go look it up!

I had another manager around the same time.  She was very smart, but obviously didn’t have a solid foundational education.  She would use the word ‘Pacific’ when she meant ‘specific’, and once told us that we should do something (I forget what) ‘ongoingly’.  What?  But then one day she used a phrase I hadn’t heard before.  She reminded us that we had to do our due diligence.  Having not heard it before I had to take it from the context, and realize there was a great deal of depth to it along with many applications.  Signed a contract that meant you couldn’t back out of a roofing deal without having to pay thirty percent of the cost (happened to me in my early marriage)? I didn’t do my due diligence.  Entered a relationship without knowing the man fully? (Again, happened to me!).  I couldn’t complain, didn’t do my due diligence! Like ‘a word to the wise’, just saying the words can remind someone to keep their eyes open.

There is nothing like education for opening your eyes.  When I was applying to post-graduate school, I had to sit the GRE – Graduate Record Examinations, a set of standardized assessments.  I prepped somewhat, thinking that my grasp of English and my excellent vocabulary would be enough to get through, then discovered words I had been using incorrectly, and grammatical terms I had long forgotten.  Math, also a favorite of mine, should have just needed a little brushing up.  Then I came across slopes and lines and intersects, not to mention formulae and logic and predictions.  Fortunately I found some website that provided exercises in both English and Math, and the brushing up got me through the GRE.

It is education that has been the salvation of most oppressed, poor people worldwide.  It is what can lift families out of poverty and move generations from subsistence living to professional careers.  My father’s father had very little formal education.  He started out as a delivery boy helping out at a grocery store, eventually driving a horse and cart, and finally a truck, to deliver goods all over North Wales.  He left home before his sons woke up, and got home after they went to bed, so they mostly saw him on Sundays (and half day Saturdays).  Yet he and his wife instilled in them the importance of education.  All three boys went to university.  All three became ministers of religion (yes, those Sundays were spent in Chapel, one of the Welsh churches in Liverpool).

My mother’s father similarly grew up with few advantages, leaving school at age eight unable to read and write. He became first a ‘brick-layer’s assistant’, but eventually taught himself to read and write and make a good living in construction.  Despite humble beginnings, by seizing opportunities he created a Real Estate Trust that provided income (and still does today) to his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. 

Education, both formal and informal, can change lives.  We recently were given a lesson in culture, in socioeconomics, in marketing and entertainment through a well-choreographed Superbowl halftime show.  The show itself was profoundly symbolic, with messages within messages, many of which have been unpacked by pundits and experts.  I did not see the show in real-time (was attending a birthday party), and have to confess that I was not too familiar with the star’s repertoire.  My music listening tends to still be grounded in the 20^th century.  I can’t even name (or recognize) a Taylor Swift song, so my ignorance is cross cultural.  But it has been very enjoyable watching the show with the benefit of the commentary surrounding it, and knowing that the messages are resonating around the world.  If books are being banned, history rewritten, and DEI now persona non grata under this regime, perhaps it will be the musicians who will save the world!

The words and phrases that presented themselves to me so many years ago seem to be appropriate now.  Whether we like it or not, this is a new paradigm, a model of government that throws everything we thought we could rely upon on its head.  It is not only local, with fears of Medicaid cuts and actual lay-offs and closures of government workers and agencies, but also global.  Real people will suffer, lives will be lost.  But there are also signs of hope as resistance and protests are spreading across the country.

This is a time for us to do our due diligence, to seek and verify information rather than spreading gossip and misinformation.  We need to dig deeper to be sure we understand our rights, so that we are not unnecessarily scared or coerced.  We need to look out for each other, and maintain connections, to be sure we are all ‘okay’.

The words of two of Dylan Thomas’ poems have been ringing in my ears.  Both of them have to do with death, but as any good Tarot Card reader will tell you, death does not only mean end of life.  It can be the end of a way of life, the end of a relationship, the end of a phase of your life.  In the case of the US it could be the end of democracy, if we do not do our due diligence!  One poem begs us (the poet was actually speaking to his dying father): ‘Do not go gentle into that good night…’ and ends: ‘Rage, rage against the dying of the light’. 

The other poem is one of hope, of overcoming.  It is said to have been inspired by the Bible verse from Romans: ‘…death shall have no dominion over him’, Thomas begins: ‘And death shall have no dominion…’   In a week when we have a president declaring himself to be a king, we have to remind ourselves that democratic countries elect leaders, not kings or queens.  This new paradigm cannot have dominion over us!

This Friday morning, as we try not to react to the flood of headlines from around the world, it is good to reflect on the power of people to enact change.  We remember MLK Jr leading non-violent protests to bring about Civil Rights Laws, and know that there is power in numbers.  We have seen calls for boycott of stores that are ending their DEI programs, and plans to withhold spending on February 28 to show the power of the purse.  These may be symbolic only, but they can demonstrate the extent of the resistance to the current indiscriminate acts taking place throughout the government.  We The People can make a difference.  ‘Though lovers be lost love shall not; And death shall have no dominion.’

Have a wonderful weekend, Family!

One Love!

Namaste.