The Fire That Burned The Quilt
Jasmin Faulk-Dickerson
The secret to peace and serenity might be hidden in the simple act of understanding others through their stories and their challenges. It comes as no surprise that many of us, if not all of us, share one common thread: the need to be loved. In a quilt pieced together with different designs, sizes and colors, a thread runs through to keep it held together affirming the unity of one whole piece made up of many smaller parts.
Is humanity, society, and community any different from that quilt? Are we all just pieces stitched together in a bigger quilt of human, social, and communal space? Is love our common thread and the one true hope to remain intact? In a quilt, thread quality is essential to sew a strong and long lasting heirloom masterpiece; do we feel the same about the quality of the love that we give and receive?
At the core of every dispute there is an aggressive sense of defensiveness and a desperate need to dominate the ultimate conclusion of how things ought to be seen and done. This is clear in politics, religion, values, cultural practices, life choices, education, and basic every day living. I have met people with a disturbing sense of entitlement, infringing their beliefs — which we can all agree have been adapted from some another outer force— on others, as if it were the only way, and they are willing to put their own lives or the lives of others on the line to make sure this imposition takes hold of the ultimate outcome.
If we were to analyze the drive behind this kind of behavior, we would find a very insecure, troubled, and fearful individual. Where there is love, there is no place for conflict. Like the thread in a quilt that sews through all the many different pieces regardless of shape, color, material, size and origin, love can smooth the edges of our own prejudices and judgements.
None of this is new, we have heard prophets, saints, writers, speakers, activists and even artists talk about this basic and simple concept. And yet, it seems like the hardest and most complicated thing to achieve. How has our humanity gone from surviving the threat of extinction from predators, to becoming so self righteous and arrogant that we assume to have a monopoly on the existence of all lifeforms. We have taken it so far that we are now exercising this kind of behavior with one another.
Perhaps since the discovery of fire, the homo erectus evolved into a pyromanic that celebrates the incendio, or burning, of everything that reminded him of the days of total humility and meekness. Eager to be greater than others, humans have forgotten that this competition is one sided. As the need for more competition grew, humans began competing within their own species, thus developing racism, hate and prejudices.
Will we ever find our way home to the place where we all want the same thing and yearn to rebuild the quilt of oneness? Will we ever realize that lighting the ravaging fire that burns our unity in order to climb up a ladder leaving others behind, and at times even pushing them out of the way or destroying them for our own benefit, will only assure that we arrive to a destination that is painfully lonely and worthless, where all that’s left is staring at our own fears?
Who are we if we are not one with the pieces that stitch our diverse and colorful quilt?
