In my last post, I considered the attitudes regarding assimilation of the Roma
as the solution to the so-called Gypsy problem.
I found that most of the rhetoric and effort is geared toward assimilation...
fitting in, erasing differences, leaving Roma values and culture behind
and adopting those of the dominant culture.
This does not only apply to the Roma people, but to those who are Gypsy in spirit.
It is not easy to carve out a life or livelihood when you find yourself at odds
with the prevailing culture.
You set aside your art or music, your freedoms and innate rhythms, your very uniqueness
to conform to a culture that encourages alienation from others and self.
Your color, your wild nature, your reaching for joy are all too much
for the uncreative and mechanistic culture that surrounds you.
You rein in your Love for Life and for People to match yourself to those around you.
You know it is wrong every step of the way but you are caught up in the flood for awhile.
You adopt fear, set aside generosity and innate goodness, and wipe away your open smile
to conform to a cold society.
It can be experienced as a kind of death to self to stifle your best and truest impulses
in order to survive...
You literally take your life in your hands if you dance sideways of the system to fashion
a life out of the deep and half-hidden desires and sensibilities you hold within.
Many times you run counter to family, spouses, friends, and authorities of all kinds
as you begin to assert yourself.
You run up against hurdle after hurdle until you are almost too weary to fight on.
We incur so much pain and self doubt along the way.
Much of our life is lived underground...we live as small and secret selves, hidden Gypsies.
We have already learned to reject ourselves...to hold prejudice on an inner level.
The work begins there ultimately...on the inside...as you discover and acknowledge
all that you are. To make a little room for that self...a safe and respectful place where
it can be protected and cultivated again on its often interrupted path through life.
It becomes a kind of spiritual quest for self and for God who gives continued nudges
as well as strength for the journey.
A colorful mosaic emerges... as messy, crazily beautiful and exuberant as life itself.
Do what you are able to do for now, but know that you will one day need to come
out of hiding and declare who you are...if you are lucky.
That is Life's gift to you ...to free you from self-limiting ideas...self-limiting lives...
other-limiting lives.
That is also your gift to others... to be who you are without reservation or apology.
To bring who you are out into the open...and to make that possible for others, too.
To forge a new and better culture day by day...
Consider it a creative challenge...don't sit around complaining about your plight.
Use your innate intelligence, wit and humor to out-strategize the system.
But find legitimate ways to express who you are, even if who you are changes daily.
Don't stop until you find the cleverest, most ethical, most lovingly human ways
to show the prevailing culture that they are misguided in regard to you and to life itself.
Don't become a leech out of anger and self righteousness as many have done,
but find the most artful and compelling ways to frame your innate beauty, character
and gifts.
Don't struggle...simply take what you have right now...for it is enough...and Outshine.
As always, be a Good Gypsy....Be a Smart Gypsy while you're at it!
No comments:
Post a Comment