Perfect

 

Much as I would like to think of myself as 'perfect', I know it is not so.

I have done dumb things.  Stupid things.  Unkind things.  The kind of things that my guilty conscious gnaws on at dark o'clock - of which there have been all too many, these days.  Er, nights.

There have been people who have taught me 'better'.  And I try, really I do, to *be* better.  Kinder.  Accepting.  Because there have been times when I have not.

I keep reading about the 'paradox of tolerance', and have chewed over that for a while now.  It was not something I had given much thought about, but when I started seeing the memes online, I began thinking about the sorts of interactions I have experienced over the years.

Most of my life I tried to 'live and let live'.  If someone was truly obnoxious, I would usually quietly just...move on.  I might know the person - didn't mean I had to like them.  Or spend time with them.  I could 'tolerate' them as much as possible.

But as I got older and began to see the growth of the alt right I found myself becoming more vocal about what I would let people say in front of me and instead of the subtle eye roll and inching away from that person, I would speak out and challenge the lies that were being told.  And if someone called *me* out for an intolerant stance, I tried to think about what I had just said and open my mind.  Do better.

The one that finally got me over the 'tolerant', don't make waves thing was:  "Trump is such a good businessman, he has some really good ideas."  To which I loudly exclaimed "no he isn't, he's awful!"  And then listed some of the awful things he had been known to do - up to that point.  Of course he has gone on to make even more awful things happen.  And now he's threatening to invade Canada and simply grab up whatever he lusts after and never mind what Canadians may have to say about it.

He rules by fiat, flourishing his black sharpie, or tweet, changing his mind faster than a quarter horse running the barrels at a rodeo, without thought, just rage fueling him.  And his sycophants jump to attention, yes, sir, yes, sir, as you wish, sir.

So, when a county - like Canada, for example - doesn't bow and scrape and kiss his ring?  He throws the victim card into the conversation and all of a sudden our PM is told that Canada is actually a vassal state and actually 'belongs' to the US.  And, when that didn't bring PM Trudeau to heel, out came the threats to crush Canada economically to 'make it easier to annex'.

But here's the thing - *I* don't want to wish harm on anyone.  Or, at least, I never used to.  That core of my personality is beginning to fray.  I am trying to find a 'middle' road between objecting to the alt right attempting to take over my country (and others, ours is not the only one in his sight) and dictate how we can live our lives.

When he wants to literally destroy all the brown people, the disabled, the poor, the educated...I cannot stay silent.  When he wants to 'own' female bodies to do with as he wishes?  No.  Just no.  When he wants to dictate to other countries how we can live our lives and who will have rights and who will have their rights stripped away?  No.  

Our countries share a border, it's true.  It is also true that it is described as an 'undefended' border.  But pretty much every country has a border without an actual physical wall around it.  Even Trump with the US treasury at his fingertips could not get a wall built from the Pacific to the  Atlantic between the US and Mexico.  

Now?  He shakes the sword of war at Canada, taunting us that we don't 'have the cards' to defend ourselves.  

But he doesn't know Canadians.  We may not agree on things, and yes, we have a minority of the population who are alt right.  But even they have things they will not tolerate.  And someone is getting very close to pissing off a significant percentage of those.

So, no.  I do not have to be friends with the alt right.  I just have to make sure they don't compile any more power and try to keep them out of the House of Commons, School Boards, off city councils.  Because the majority of Canadians are still leaning left.  And no, we cannot be 'friends' with the minority who want to control what everyone else does, how they live.

Why am I, who is not a politician, saying these things?  Because I know history.  I have an understanding about human nature.  I know that in the past I have done things I regret.  But I did not blame the other person.  I looked inward and decided I needed to change *me*, not lay the blame elsewhere.

And what on earth does any of this have to do with weaving, for heaven's sake?

Because weaving is a lot like life.  If it wasn't we would not have so many metaphors using textiles and making them for how to live.  I have achieved a level of 'expertise' about textiles by keeping an open mind, and when I am told I'm wrong I dig deeper to try and get at the kernel of truth in order to understand what I am seeing happen.

When the next election comes along, pay attention to what people are saying.  Discover the 'code' they speak in about their values ('we need to save the children' while trying to erase LGTBQ+ under the guise of protecting children when all they mean is they want to erase those people while letting weird Uncle Chatty abuse the children in his own family.)

And so on.

Remember the Nazis came for the disabled and folk who needed care first followed quickly by other 'undesireables'.  If you don't know this, do some reading of *actual* historians, not 'history hystericals' that re-write history with fake information.  We are watching the Trump regime strip all human rights from the people who can least afford to lose them - health care, food, shelter, education.  If you have never read Orwell's 1984, maybe you should.  Or any other dystopian fiction.

Personally I can't bear to see such fiction play out because they are being used as playbooks - Handmaid's Tale, etc.

If you don't speak up, demand more from your politicians, you will 'tolerate' yourself right into the depths of Trump's fever dreams - and those of his minions.