Promoting Goodness
2023-07-13
Thoughts after viewing the Sound of Freedom movie and related discussions.
Recently the movie Sound of Freedom came out which dramatically re-enacts a true story involving a Drug Enforcement Agent’s journey into Colombia where he rescued children stolen from their parents and then used as sex slaves; after their youth appeal is expended, many of them get chopped up and sold for body parts. The film gives us a glimpse into a veritable Realm of Hell existing parallel to our collectively perceived everyday societies. Reportedly there are millions of such children being so used in our world today but the movie doesn’t do a deep dive into that, mainly sticking to its one particular story. The agent’s website and foundational work can be found here: https://ourrescue.org/.
After viewing the movie, I had a discussion with my Mexican wife who told me about a Mexican journalist called Lydia Cacho who has heroically exposed similar activities in her home country. She has written a book published in English called “Infamy: How one woman brought an International Sex Trafficking Ring to Justice.” During a Youtube interview in response to a query about how she copes with knowing all these horrible, evil things some do to others she replied that in fact she is optimistic, because even though there are indeed many bad people there are still more good people, and moreover good people have more of an effect than we tend to think. All it takes is for simple people in their own immediate situation to do simple kindnesses for others. Such kindnesses can take many forms, be it a simple word or gesture, teaching a dance class in the local neighbourhood helping middle aged ladies trim off some of their bulges, being a volunteer at the local church or whatever. The ways in which we can make positive contributions within our own families and communities are endless and have a far greater effect than most of us think. Perhaps some sort of interconnected force field of ordinary goodness.
For example, last week we were invited to the birthday party of our house builder’s four-year old son. My wife shopped around for a gift and found a set of coloring pencils – the best brand in Mexico and one she coveted as a little girl herself – along with some coloring books. The gift was a huge hit and the little boy sent her a message via his father’s cell phone about how it was one of the nicest presents he had ever received in his life. So that simple act of kindness communicated something valuable to the little boy that changed, in however simple a way, his perception about the nature of people outside his immediate family and thus about the world in general, about feelings that respond to such a gift and which hopefully open the door to his being similarly kind to others in turn. A simple act of kindness is no little thing. It reverberates. As General Maximus said: ‘Brothers, what we do in life echoes in eternity!’ This is true even if not self-evident; indeed, such effects can never be measured, nor can goodness even be seen by those – nearly all of us these days – viewing the world through the lens of materialist science which presents as a High Priest of Global Reality these days.
In any case, have long felt, and indeed have earlier written about on this blog, that there is a vast, invisible power of goodness, depicted charmingly, for example, by Tolkein as hobbits. Although invisible, this power of goodness prevents the evil-doers in our midst from simply taking all, conquering all – though they do plunder much and do great damage, as this movie’s real-life background, involving literally millions of children being prostituted and murdered, demonstrates in spades. This is because most of their power and pleasure in having it comes from tricking and/or exploiting good people. Indeed, perhaps we could go so far as to say that without such exploitation they would derive no satisfaction from the evil they perpetrate so they need the good in order to have a purpose in life. In other words eliminating us would eliminate them; so rather than brute force and mass murder usually they favour persuasion, preferring to trick and cajole us into consenting to their various perversions, enticing us away from the simple and good.
Interestingly, it seems that goodness does not depend upon evil in the same way that evil depends upon goodness. Goodness simply depends upon our being open to listening to and following the better angels of our nature and doing what we know in our hearts is right and uplifting, whereas evil exists by undermining that same instinct towards being good. It can only imitate, never truly create, which is perhaps why modern art and architecture are generally so ugly compared to that of previous ages.
In any case, after listening to my wife’s recounting of what Lydia Cacho had to say about the power of doing good deeds in one’s immediate family and community, it occurred to me that, even though retired and not doing all that much of anything any more, I could dedicate most of my time and efforts to writing good things which help uplift the spirit of those reading (rather than dwelling on all the disturbing things happening in our world of late), and also to performing simple service in my local community, be it teaching English, or building basic furniture in a workshop building now being constructed.
To which end, partly as a way of familiarizing myself more with it, I did a Toltec I Ching cast since this new sequence and commentary by William Horden emphasizes the inner journey perspective and so this sort of question should fit well with such an approach.
The result of that cast might be published shortly; for now though, here is the Summary of the Divinatory Hexagram #56 Recapturing Vision (#22 Elegance in the more familiar King Wen sequence). The query was: “Writing and Living to Promote Goodness as an over-arching Intent.”
SUMMARY: You are procrastinating. Your conscience demands things be acted on and the hour is growing late. Don’t find excuses to keep you from speaking and acting as you should. Now is the time to channel your righteous indignation into creative acts that touch others’ hearts. Rage not against injustices done to you, but against the injustices done to others. The momentum is with you.
Given this query was prompted by the story of a brave woman who took on dangerous pedophile networks in Mexico involving interlocking layers of criminal and official government organizations, the response seems remarkably apropos.
In any case, it seems that the notion of Promoting Goodness is as good an organizing principle, or general intention, as any other I could come up with, so intend to start offering future articles on this blog with that intention in mind. Presumably this will mean a lessening of geopolitical King Wen Yi Readings, which in any case seem to have run their course for now, and a resumption of original, short pieces exploring various themes emanating from this over-arching Intent, which is extremely basic but from which we often both individually and collectively stray, sometimes only for brief periods but sometimes for far longer, lasting entire lifetimes or permeating entire societies even for centuries….
And this brings up another assumption, which indeed was behind the Yi Query: rather than dwelling on evil and its many manifestations in society today, rather we should do good deeds, write good words, cultivating what is already in the garden and improving it, honoring it, cherishing it, much as how we raise our children. The best way to overcome evil is for good people to do good things as much as possible, each and every day. It’s extremely simple – corny even – but perhaps worth contemplating and acting on in everyday life.
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