We Need Stitches

Very sadly, the United States of America is now anything but United   

We have become torn apart like a big gash that requires stitches to bring us together, and then we can begin healing.  I’m writing this in the hopes that all, no matter what side you’re on, will take an honest look at yourself, your side, and become a stitch.

Here is a story (posted here several times before) and some quotes to read, re-read, and digest.

I am again sharing this true story* below in the hope that it will cause some personal reflection for each and everyone of us.  That this story will then help bring some stitching and begin to bring us all together.

There were two young brothers ages eight and ten. The younger brother was the taller one. We all know, and men certainly remember that for boys, height is really important. So naturally the older, shorter brother was very jealous of his younger, taller brother.

One day, while playing in the backyard, the older, shorter brother pushed the younger, taller brother into a little ditch. This wasn’t done in order to hurt or knock him down, but rather to make him appear shorter. At which point the older, now looking taller brother gave a “Nah, nah, nehnahna, I’m taller than you!” Their father witnessed this and called over the older brother.  The Father told him to bring over a chair and he did.  The Father then told him to stand on it.  The boy didn’t understand but he complied and then asked why he was standing on a chair, and his father said,

“Whenever you want to be bigger, you raise yourself up, instead of pushing someone else down.”

Some Thoughts to Begin Stitching

To become a stitch starts with recognizing that you may bear some responsibility in creating the gash in the first place

“No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.” – Stanislaw Jerzy Lec  

“Man is endowed by nature with two eyes: one to see his neighbors’ virtues, the other to see his own faults.” – Chasidic Proverb

“Interesting, isn’t it, how one can detect a speck on another’s hair, but can’t see flies on his own nose?” — Mendel Moicher Sefarim

“If you do not tell the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people.” – Virginia Woolf

“Assumptions are the termites of relationships.” – Henry Winkler

In reading this story and the following quotes, avoid the quick natural instinct of ‘yeah, that’s what they do”.  Instead, take an honest moment and ask yourself, is that what I and or my side does?

“Eyesight is of no avail if the heart is blind.” – Rabbi Shlomo ben Yehudah

“A man prefers to believe what he prefers to be true.” – Sir Francis Bacon

“When everyone thinks alike, no one thinks very much.”   —   Walter Lippmann

“Not caring about contradiction is the same as not caring about the truth.” – Jamie Whyte

“The human mind is capable of rationalizing and modifying morality to meet a person’s needs or desires.” – Rabbi Dr. Abraham J. Twerski

“We don’t always see things as they are, we see things as we are” Anais Nin

“When you celebrate the death of your ideological opponents it is worth wondering what your ideology has made of you.” – Rabbi David Wolpe

Until and when we see the other, and not as another, but as a human being, we can’t and won’t heal.

“Love your fellow as yourself” —Leviticus

Be A Stitch

Be Good Do Good Think Good Be Healthy

*The story is attributed to the 5th Rebbe of Chabad-Lubavitch. Rabbi Shalom Dov Ber Schneerson. He recounted this story of his youth that happened with him and his older brother, Zalman Aron