Sweet! You made it! I’m so thrilled you are here. You know it makes my heart skip more lightly whenever you visit now. I felt like we were strangers at the start, but now, not so much. It’s like the beginnings of love… oh, no! Not like that. I’m very happy in my marriage. But there are other kinds of Love, right, Love between members of a species and even between species. I certainly love my dog, but not everyone does, he jumps about a lot, he’s a free spirit. Anyway, we’re going to meet Belinda today, she’s turning seven and she has a birthday party. We’ve hired a bouncy castle and her mother has taken care of buying the food. It’s going to be a rather special day, today we teach Belinda how the real world works, you know, you need money to buy stuff and there isn’t enough to go around. Well, there is enough to go around, but if no-one pays for it then no-one can eat it. I’m pretty sure that’s how things are in 2015. What did you say? Can I just magic the food to people? What do you think I am? No, I can’t. All I can do is tell you stories and hope to jump start your moral compasses, it’s in there, we’re just looking for a “reboot.” Anyway, back to Belinda, she has thirty friends coming. We put the food out with price tags on and gave her some cash. She has about half of the money she needs to feed everyone even though there is enough for everyone. Whatever food isn’t eaten we can just feed to the pigs later, then we get to benefit from it, right? Of course ninety percent of the calories pigs eat are lost but hey, that’s the way the world works, yeah? Or does it work? I get confused. Should we feed the pigs or the children? Is that a hard choice, I know you like bacon. I’ve eaten plenty of it too. Oh, I’m getting distracted, let’s get back to the party.
Belinda must choose six friends who are allowed in the castle, the rest can’t go in. She needs to know how privilege works. To help her get over the notion of it being unfair, we’ll choose some attributes of the friends that we prize above other things and say they deserve the privilege for that reason. But what attributes should we choose? Maybe the prettiest, that’s how things work with celebrities much of the time. Or maybe we should give them a math test, then we could say it was merit based, study hard to get into the castle! Belinda has another idea, she’s going to let the kindest kids only into the castle. I told her it won’t work but she’s really determined, I think she gets that from her mother’s side. She also has a plan to feed everyone, but I told her it’s rigged against her and she can’t, the prices are too high and the pigs are expecting the spoils. Perhaps I didn’t tell her enough fairy tales when she was little, we must have poured too much Love into her and now she can’t hurt a fly - literally! She won’t eat meat either, even the pigs! Too soft, eh? We need to toughen that child up! Maybe we should make her kill a pig herself, that might do it. What did you say? Am I serious? Of course not, but you must let me tell my stories, it’s important. Look, the guests are arriving, her friends from ballet class, some from school and her cousins. Perhaps she should just let her cousins go in the castle, how would that be?
Now the fun begins, first Belinda chooses the kids with the softest natures and tells them that she can only let them into the castle because there isn’t room for everyone. The kids say, “No, let’s take turns, here, we can bounce for five minutes at a time and then swap over. Bouncing is really hard work anyway. All the kids smile and while some bounce the rest play tag. After a few minutes the castle is empty and all the kids are playing tag together. They appear to be happiest playing together on the grass, I guess her mother could have saved some money there on hiring the castle.
Now the children are all hungry. Belinda stands in front of the table and calls her mother, the one who devised the party rules to teach Belinda (she wants her to be CEO of a corporation, not doling out soup in some homeless shelter!) Belinda smirks. Mother, she says, your prices are too high. We aren’t buying as individuals so we want wholesale prices. Fifty percent off or you get nothing, I want all of my friends have enough to eat. Wow. Look at the fire in Belinda’s eyes, she’s got her hands on her hips and her eye on the prize. Her mother doesn’t know what to do, she has a feeling of guilt in her stomach but she’s not sure why. This is how the world works and Belinda must learn to chase money like everyone else or she might starve! Mother wants Belinda to be rich and comfortable. Belinda throws the money in the air like ugly confetti and sudden gust of wind carries it into the air and over the fence. Then she turns to her mother, “Would you like to come share the food with us, I’m sure there is plenty for you too.” Her mother is torn between chasing the money, scalding Belinda and being more proud of her than she’s ever been. Belinda won’t tolerate unfairness, she won’t pick favourites, she wants everyone to have fun and eat well. I love Belinda, she’s a bundle of Love and sweetness. This party had been wonderful, hasn’t it? I could drink in the laughter of the children like a tonic, somehow it’s the best medicine for my soul.
I bet you’re like me too. Aren’t we all beings of love and laughter? Isn’t that why we are only healthy when we feel loved? Isn’t that why laughter helps us to heal faster? To me, and I believe for you too, Love isn’t just real, it’s tangible. Love is uncontained by time, space and the rules of mathematics. I told the doctor that our ability to feel love is our sixth sense and he nodded, pencil poised to diagnose me but unable to find the right category. I told him that with Love we are whole and content, without it we are sick. Love is as necessary to us as the air we breathe, the food we eat and the water we drink, so how can it not be an integral part of a human being? How can it not be the very substance our souls are made of? How have we missed something so powerful for so long? Perhaps like the air we took Love for granted, perhaps like the soil we simply didn’t notice Love unless there was a reason to. Or perhaps we’ve been taught to fear the very thing that is our salvation - the power of Love. We’ve been lost, but now we are found, the Love was inside us all along, whispering the right path against the shrill cries of greed and fear - the very things that are making us sick and killing our societies, our world. When was sanity defined as chasing dollars and material wealth instead of being truly happy and whole? When did saving money get to be more important than saving children?
Belinda must choose six friends who are allowed in the castle, the rest can’t go in. She needs to know how privilege works. To help her get over the notion of it being unfair, we’ll choose some attributes of the friends that we prize above other things and say they deserve the privilege for that reason. But what attributes should we choose? Maybe the prettiest, that’s how things work with celebrities much of the time. Or maybe we should give them a math test, then we could say it was merit based, study hard to get into the castle! Belinda has another idea, she’s going to let the kindest kids only into the castle. I told her it won’t work but she’s really determined, I think she gets that from her mother’s side. She also has a plan to feed everyone, but I told her it’s rigged against her and she can’t, the prices are too high and the pigs are expecting the spoils. Perhaps I didn’t tell her enough fairy tales when she was little, we must have poured too much Love into her and now she can’t hurt a fly - literally! She won’t eat meat either, even the pigs! Too soft, eh? We need to toughen that child up! Maybe we should make her kill a pig herself, that might do it. What did you say? Am I serious? Of course not, but you must let me tell my stories, it’s important. Look, the guests are arriving, her friends from ballet class, some from school and her cousins. Perhaps she should just let her cousins go in the castle, how would that be?
Now the fun begins, first Belinda chooses the kids with the softest natures and tells them that she can only let them into the castle because there isn’t room for everyone. The kids say, “No, let’s take turns, here, we can bounce for five minutes at a time and then swap over. Bouncing is really hard work anyway. All the kids smile and while some bounce the rest play tag. After a few minutes the castle is empty and all the kids are playing tag together. They appear to be happiest playing together on the grass, I guess her mother could have saved some money there on hiring the castle.
Now the children are all hungry. Belinda stands in front of the table and calls her mother, the one who devised the party rules to teach Belinda (she wants her to be CEO of a corporation, not doling out soup in some homeless shelter!) Belinda smirks. Mother, she says, your prices are too high. We aren’t buying as individuals so we want wholesale prices. Fifty percent off or you get nothing, I want all of my friends have enough to eat. Wow. Look at the fire in Belinda’s eyes, she’s got her hands on her hips and her eye on the prize. Her mother doesn’t know what to do, she has a feeling of guilt in her stomach but she’s not sure why. This is how the world works and Belinda must learn to chase money like everyone else or she might starve! Mother wants Belinda to be rich and comfortable. Belinda throws the money in the air like ugly confetti and sudden gust of wind carries it into the air and over the fence. Then she turns to her mother, “Would you like to come share the food with us, I’m sure there is plenty for you too.” Her mother is torn between chasing the money, scalding Belinda and being more proud of her than she’s ever been. Belinda won’t tolerate unfairness, she won’t pick favourites, she wants everyone to have fun and eat well. I love Belinda, she’s a bundle of Love and sweetness. This party had been wonderful, hasn’t it? I could drink in the laughter of the children like a tonic, somehow it’s the best medicine for my soul.
I bet you’re like me too. Aren’t we all beings of love and laughter? Isn’t that why we are only healthy when we feel loved? Isn’t that why laughter helps us to heal faster? To me, and I believe for you too, Love isn’t just real, it’s tangible. Love is uncontained by time, space and the rules of mathematics. I told the doctor that our ability to feel love is our sixth sense and he nodded, pencil poised to diagnose me but unable to find the right category. I told him that with Love we are whole and content, without it we are sick. Love is as necessary to us as the air we breathe, the food we eat and the water we drink, so how can it not be an integral part of a human being? How can it not be the very substance our souls are made of? How have we missed something so powerful for so long? Perhaps like the air we took Love for granted, perhaps like the soil we simply didn’t notice Love unless there was a reason to. Or perhaps we’ve been taught to fear the very thing that is our salvation - the power of Love. We’ve been lost, but now we are found, the Love was inside us all along, whispering the right path against the shrill cries of greed and fear - the very things that are making us sick and killing our societies, our world. When was sanity defined as chasing dollars and material wealth instead of being truly happy and whole? When did saving money get to be more important than saving children?