Protesters blockaded roads, railways, bridges, and ports in this “Valentine” week. Is that love? What’s the spiritual connection? Find out in this week’s edition of “Isn’t That Ironic?”.
It’s Valentine’s Day so I’ll have to speak about love. But the big news this week (in Canada, at least) is the protesters blockading roads, bridges, railways, and ports across the country. Is there is a connection? I think so.
The mainstream media was all over these little bands of deluded rebels as they tried to shut down Canada because they think a natural gas pipeline is going to destroy the world. You must have seen the “news”, but if you missed it, you could start with this article (Blockades).
I’m going to sidestep the issue of whether their opinions are right or wrong. That’s too big a question for my little blog post, but let’s look through spiritual eyes to see the irony.
We live in a democratic country with myriad laws, regulations, agencies, boards, commissions, and you-name-it, all trying to gauge the fickle public mood, balance hundreds of competing interests, sift through conflicting scientific evidence, and make wise decisions that benefit the majority of Canadians. Whew! I get tired just thinking about it. For major industrial projects like the Coastal GasLink Pipeline, the process takes a decade and billions of dollars. When it’s done, somehow the majority has finally come to a decision. Naturally, a minority will still disagree.
Not that the majority is always right. The majority is frequently wrong. But minorities are no better. Every society’s elites think they know better, but the lessons of history suggest otherwise. But how should the minority respond? By interfering with the lives of everyone else? By spreading economic chaos, social disruption, and inflaming anger in their brothers and sisters? Is that love? Is that enlightened?
It’s certainly a bit ironic that these people would try so hard to undermine the very democracy that gives them the freedom to disrupt the whole country. It’s definitely ironic that the police didn’t arrest any of these people anywhere in the country, but arrested one poor, fed-up citizen whole tried to clear a highway of the debris blocking everyone’s travel to work and home.
The spiritually enlightened do not impose their will on others. They teach. They don’t command. They guide. They don’t coerce. This has been exactly the complaint against old-style religion—that it controls, even oppresses, people.
Just as God gives all of us free will, we must allow it to each other. The mission of every person is to help others—not hinder them. Not to put obstacles and stumbling blocks in the way of others in their legitimate efforts to provide for themselves and their families.
That’s the heart of this spiritual error—the attempt by a handful of people to impose their will on the whole country, in contempt of the whole country. That’s not love. That’s selfishness. It is spiritually misguided.
Let your choices be guided by love, and let your love respect the free will of others—this Valentine’s Day and every day.
God Bless You!
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