Perceptions About Misperceptions

When we point at others with accusations or suspicions, it is not unlike pointing at a mirror. We must learn to look more deeply into that mirror.

In the common world,

The discord between

Those who perceive themselves as good

And those who are perceived as evil

Exists only because

Those who are perceived as evil

Are deemed to be different,

And therefore are misunderstood,

And therefore feared.

Those who perceive themselves as good

Often believe that those who are

Different, misunderstood, and feared

Must be changed somehow or removed,

Presumably, for the sake of the good

And the safety of humanity.

When those who are perceived as

Different, misunderstood, and feared

Have been changed or removed,

Will there still not be

Differences among the good?

Will there still not be

Those who are misunderstood?

And will there not always be

Something to be feared?

This conflict then

Is not between ourselves,

But rages deep within

Each individual;

And there is nothing

That can be removed,

But much about each one of us

That can be changed.

r. nuñez, 6/2014