Susam Campbell is a beautiful being and student-teacher. She learns and grows and expresses herself in ways that evoke curiosity in me and reminds me of deep wisdom and fresh perspectives.
She indeed talks about going Higher to broader perspectives to see and understand the ecosystem issues benefit from more allowing and engagement without abandonment.
Bringing some examples to light from her long and broad experience, I am reminded how challenging being “together” is when there are “differences” – and in my experience there always are.
People we view as Other reflects, for me, the aspect of our primitive brain that detects before we can even evaluate, “This is NOT one of us.”
I’ve felt that. The microexpression from the barkeeper who noticed I had no tattoos. We could both feel the “other” activation in our brains.
I’m grateful we still were able to exchange money for coffee. But sometimes, the Other!! light is accompanied by threat alerts and recollections – both personal and news and beliefs we absorbed.
Admittedly, I can be well-informed and even have skill in recognizing when my brain is Othering (and when any human is), doesn’t mean I yet feel particularly empowered to “change things” in any kind of broader societal much less global way.
I do value standing at the threshold of my own pathways from my primitive brain to my (generally) wiser heart and soul. In a very broad sense, I am free to coach my mind to re-perceive. To broaden. Go Higher and Deeper (to use Susan’s invitation).