Naked Humanity: Light and Darkness
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.” — Marianne Williamson
Words ever perfect.
We are incredibly strong, powerful beyond measure. We can do and become whatever we can imagine. And we are also incredibly weak and pathetic in many ways.
We can be broken and yet appear whole. Definitely we die, but strange enough is that we can die and yet appear to live — to be alive.
But death is not our enemy. Sometimes not dying is. For there are often things and parts of us that need to die so that better can be birth.
For the new to come and flourish, the old has to die. Since the old is often part of us, we die to be born again. And yet we thought to be “born again” was only a religious concept.
We are powerful and weak. We often know what to do. We know where our power beyond measure lies. And yet very often we run from ourselves as if we could really run from ourselves.
We can’t make ourselves do what we know we should be doing, both big and small. And yet within us, there’s power beyond measure.
We see a glimpse of the power in our true selves, but we lack the power to take up our own power. How deep is the fear of our powerful beyond measure, if our own light frightens us enough to never let it shine? And since that happens, how now are we powerful?
Therefore, we are not only powerful beyond measure. We are also weak beyond imagination. We are inadequate and sometimes that’s all we are. Sometimes we get to a place where we lose touch of our power such that our weakness thrives.
When it happens sometimes, we can’t even get out of bed to pull the curtains open. Ironically, the capability of our muscles remain exactly the same. We call it depression. Does our light frighten us into this darkness? Still, we are strong enough to emerge from these ashes.
We are incredibly strong. And we are also incredibly weak. We can prevail against powerful forces that seek to destroy us. Yet, we can be broken by words — mere words. We have among us, people who what they heard 10 years ago still has them in chains.
Where is their power beyond measure? Or did they encounter something more powerful than them? The words of another?
Death and life are in the power of the tongue. So says the Proverbs. But how come speaking life back into a soul broken by words often seem less potent than the words that inflicted brokenness.
And how strange is it that the darkness in one can consume the light in another? And yet, the light in one can disperse the darkness in a thousand.
Think about all things beautiful and all things horrible that have happened in the world. The common denominator, they were all done by human beings — by us — our light and our darkness.
We also have people who what they saw themselves or another do 7 years ago, still has them in bondage today. They neither can see the light in themselves nor in others because of what they saw.
It seems our power could be ripped out of us by our own sight — or by a dark experience. How strange? Still, one beautiful experience can heal and rekindle our light.
It’s our light and not our darkness that most frightens us? No! Our light gives us hope and uplifts us.
Our darkness definitely frightens us. We couldn’t live in a world where we were more frightened by our light than our darkness.
Perhaps we are intimidated by the fullness of our light. But definitely we fear the darkness that could crawl out of the deep. And there is no deeper deep than that of the soul. When darkness crawls out of there, it is really dark.
Sometimes we fear shining our light because the darkness that crawls out of the souls of men might come for that which seems to threaten it’s survival. Why shine bright if it makes one a target?
In times through history that darkness crawled out of the depths of some souls, terror and horror enveloped the world. Horror so great that light fled for safety.
Wars, genocides, massacres, exterminations. Who in these days was frightened by the light that could save them?
Thank God light always returned and prevailed. But before light returned with salvation, hell had a dance of absolute impunity, unleashing anguish with an appetite of a wild fire.
Those who lived through such hell, aren’t naive about the darkness in us. For they saw it firsthand. They know to guard against it at all cost.
But as generations roll, everything recedes to just history and then we start peeking down into the dark in the deep again.
Hence observations like “History has a way of repeating itself. Or Georg Hegel’s. “The only thing that we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history.” But we can do better and we are doing better.
The yin and yang of our nature will never change — no matter how better we become. And it is not that in some of us is one nature or the other. There are not some who are good and some evil. It is not this or that. it is this and that.
Good and evil in all
Light and darkness in all
All angels and demons
Strength to overcome and weakness to fall in all
All corruptible, all capable of saying no to it
Our dual nature — ever in a balanced and inextricable co-existence. We all possess in us an equal potency and proclivity for good and evil.
No one is only one or the other. We are all cut from the same cloth. Perhaps cut and shaped differently. But we all have appetites for somethings dark, somethings strange, somethings malevolent.
Who knows how deep we might plunge if we took a small sip of our evil appetites. Who knows how large the tiny appetites might grow or how lethal they might mutate to be.
That we choose good and light most of the times is a miracle. The miracle of the divine in us. For ultimately, the God who has the unparalleled power for creation and destruction had made a choice from the beginning.
He chose to pour out in full Creation. For if He had poured out the other, we wouldn’t have an expanding universe. But we do. Because creation keeps creating.
Had He poured out the other side of his might, it probably would have consumed Him too. He talks about both sides but identifies only with one — Love, Light, Good. The same He manifests. And so do we.
So I suppose our light will always triumph over an equal opposite force, our darkness. When darkness falls no matter how great, the light always expand to consume it.
When destruction crawls out of the deep, creation always prevail. The center was built to create infinitely and the concentration of destructive power no matter how great could never outlive it.
Every time through the history of humanity that darkness crawled announcing it’s dominance; every time darkness covered the face of the earth, the divine in us always rose to say:
“Let there be light”
The End
Background
Inspired by reflection on the Genocide in Rwanda. I started writing it on April 7, 2023, the genocide commemoration day. April 7 every year marks the beginning of a 100 days genocide memorial period that concludes on July 4, which marks the liberation of Rwanda from the genocidal regime.
The memorial period lasts the same 100 days as the actual genocide. It is a period of utmost solemnity to remember the victims of the unimaginable terror that plagued Rwanda. Generally dubbed, Kwibuka (Remembrance), this period is always observed under the singular recurring theme: Remember, Unite, Renew.
From the ashes, Rwanda rose and continues to heal and to shine ever brighter. The divine in us again said “Let there be light.” And light there became and shines on 🔥
