It's All Connected

An essential truth in massage: every part of the body is connected. You can see it in the connective tissue, the fascia, as it stretches over bones and muscles to create the body stocking. If something is happening in the right hip, there's often a knot also forming at the left scapula as the connective tissue gets tugged and pulled. What draws the attention is the stabbing pain created by the knot in "that spot right there" as we reach around our backs to point to it. It isn't until a massage therapist places her hand on the part that hurts, and the other hand on the hip that has been out of balance that we say, "Oh, yeah, y'know that hip has been bugging me."

For me, our bodies are living analogies of our communities, secular and religious. Certainly, Paul in his various letters to the emerging Churches spoke of the body of Christ as not just the literal body, but the figurative body with its various parts all needing one another to function as a whole. A head can't say to a foot, "I don't need you." Because the head and the feet are all part of the same body. And while they don't function in the same way and are separated by several other body parts, they are still connected as one body.

In this same way, I think about the political rhetoric that has predominated in this country. If something is said in one quarter about using "Second amendment remedies" if a particular candidate or party doesn't get its way, then that tugs at the connective tissue in another part of our body politic. When a prominent political figure puts out a map with gun sights over Congressional districts and a tweet message to supporters to "don't retreat; instead reload!" that is another knot in the muscle of the body politic. Such knots in the fiber of the political muscle cause pain elsewhere. And that's what I've been seeing.

I've been amazed at comments on Facebook which have tried to excuse Saturday's shootings in Tuscon as some kind of isolated, freakish, crazy work of an isolated, freakish, crazy young man. "Let's not jump to conclusions," "We don't know his political leanings," "Did you see what he put up on YouTube?" "Is this really a Lee Harvey Oswald or is this more like the Virginia Tech shooting?". Whatever Jared Loughner's mental issues are, and there appear to be many, this use of mental illness as a deflection from what's happened to our body politic has to stop.

What is the truth? Our body, this country, has been ingesting the junk food of hate-filled speech. It surrounds us all the time, no matter what media we're listening to or watching. The newsmakers have become increasingly strident. Going to governmental meetings, we hear politicians pontificate and say things that are rude and dismissive of the people they supposedly represent. We watch supposed "reality" TV shows where people are egged on to treat each other poorly. We swallow this down, and then wonder why our stomachs are hurting.

Or more directly, why people might actually shoot other people. If such negativity makes a sane person grumble about the incivility of it all, imagine what it might do to a person who is unable to reason?

"Freedom of speech!" people say. As a former journalist, you will find no one more willing to allow people of opposing opinions to my own a chance to say what they want to say and be heard. I did it for years, interviewing people who I personally did not like, and yet their views represented those held by others and needed to be heard. Still, even in that role and with that ethic, I knew the consequences of the words spoken. And I knew better than to just go find the most idiot reactionary on a topic just so they can spout off. On the death penalty, I wanted to hear from those who were deeply engaged in the legislative debate; not just some state lawmaker who wanted to say sensational crap to get a headline. Quotes were meant to move the story forward, not keep it spinning in a cesspool. And to my mind, there is a big difference between speaking freely, and screaming "Fire!" in a crowded movie theater.

For far too long in the United States, and most especially in Florida, the people on the right have been doing just that: screaming "Fire!" in a crowded movie theater. There is nothing that is not cause for alarm for them, and reason to panic. "Gay Marriage" "Immigration" and--oh, my God--"Health care". It is one thing to disagree, and debate, and be passionate in your argument. All people are, or at least should be, willing to let our body digest diverse views and get the nutrients out of those arguments. But if what is going into the body is junk food deep-fried in hate and fear, there is no nutrition and the body will eventually become sick.

And if the digestive tract is ailing, it will be felt in the head. And may start to injure the heart.

It's all connected, folks. We can't pretend that the words of those in places of influence don't have a trickle down effect on all of us. If you have a position of power--be it as a pundit, politician, priest, player of any kind-- you have an additional burden of responsibility to feed the body something other than venomous junk. The head can't leave the feet behind. The connective tissue is holding us all together. I think it's time for a new diet.