{"id":1373,"date":"2020-09-09T16:25:30","date_gmt":"2020-09-09T20:25:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redchairblogs.wpengine.com\/holymoly\/?p=1373"},"modified":"2020-09-09T16:25:30","modified_gmt":"2020-09-09T20:25:30","slug":"learning-to-see-no-stranger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.lynchburg.edu\/holymoly\/2020\/09\/09\/learning-to-see-no-stranger\/","title":{"rendered":"Learning to See No Stranger"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m currently reading <\/span>See No Stranger: A Memoir and Manifesto of Revolutionary Love <\/span><\/i>by Valarie Kaur. I\u2019m only halfway through, but it\u2019s quickly becoming one of my favorite books I\u2019ve read this year.<\/span><\/p>\n

Valarie Kaur is a civil rights activist, lawyer, and an award-winning filmmaker who is full of compassion and wisdom. Her book chronicles her own story of growing up in California and finding her place in the world as a Sikh American. From her response to the increased hate crimes to Sikh Americans after 9\/11, to her work as an activist, to her own healing from an assault, Kaur challenges her readers that a revolutionary love can change the world.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The title of the book comes from a well-known Sikh phrase. Kaur\u2019s message is that we would not see one another as strangers, but instead see each other as a part of ourselves we do not yet know.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At one point in the book, Valarie recounts stories of oppression and violence that she not only endured, but also saw among the Sikh community. In response, she stated, \u201cThere is no such thing as monsters in this world, only human beings who are wounded.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She goes on to explain that when we don\u2019t see people and their wounds, it is easy to see them as less than human and become terrified of them. But once we do see both their and our wounds, we can start the process of healing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I have not been able to stop thinking about this phrase: \u201cThere is no such thing as monsters in this world, only human beings who are wounded.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She said that in reference to people who committed horrific acts of violence. It would be easy to call such people monsters. But she didn\u2019t dehumanize them; she has compassion on them. What a beautiful and wise understanding of humanity.<\/span><\/p>\n

As our world becomes more polarized, as it is easy to unfriend and block people on social media who hold different viewpoints, as acts of violence are streamed live online, and as we enter into the final months of the election season, I hope that instead of seeing others as strangers or even monsters, we see them as humans – human beings with wounds.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Because if we are honest, we all have our wounds. Most of us keep them hidden and out of view of others. Yet, if we acknowledge that every person we encounter, including ourselves, is carrying some sort of heavy burden, a secret pain, perhaps we would become a more compassionate people.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And maybe that in itself could be a healing balm for our world.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m currently reading See No Stranger: A Memoir and Manifesto of Revolutionary Love by Valarie Kaur. I\u2019m only halfway through, but it\u2019s quickly becoming one of my favorite books I\u2019ve read this year. Valarie Kaur is a civil rights activist, …<\/p>\n

Learning to See No Stranger<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nathan"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1QIf6-m9","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lynchburg.edu\/holymoly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lynchburg.edu\/holymoly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lynchburg.edu\/holymoly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lynchburg.edu\/holymoly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lynchburg.edu\/holymoly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lynchburg.edu\/holymoly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1373\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lynchburg.edu\/holymoly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lynchburg.edu\/holymoly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lynchburg.edu\/holymoly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}