On Playing the Villain

Yesterday they announced a verdict of triple murder in the case of the white policeman Derek Chauvin, who knelt on the neck of George Floyd until he died of asphyxiation. I was particularly struck by the people cheering the verdict, the screams of joy I heard played on the radio, the smiles on the faces of many of those who came out to celebrate. Mr. Chauvin had been identified as the villain!

People expressed their relief that the verdict, which seemed inevitable given the evidence, was nonetheless far from inevitable, given the history of such trials having to do with similar circumstances.

What had seemed far from inevitable for many people was that a panel of citizens would be found who could put aside what everybody knows about race relations in the United States, about the inevitability of judicial inequity, and what James Baldwin once called “the wise desire not to be betrayed by too much hoping.” In order to play their part in a fair trial, those citizens would have to put aside seldom questioned assumptions: that police have been trained in such a way as to assure fairness, that they have been trained to put aside their own biases, and that the system would ultimately dispense justice for all.

Given a long history of disappointment and frustration in waiting for that day, it was a surprise for many people that the system actually worked, that what video recordings made obvious would actually result in an assignation of responsibility that matched what had clearly happened. For many of us who have felt that disappointment and frustration over the inertia with which the broader society resists change, the result was simultaneously a great relief and a reminder of the rarity of such an event.

Of course, there was also an element of revenge involved, in that the obvious villain, Mr. Chauvin, would be punished in a way that would in some way match the harm he caused. And revenge, though it certainly feels better than frustration and impotence, probably won’t improve anybody’s quality of life and likely won’t send a message powerful enough to change the experience of people of color who live with the daily oppression associated with white police.

Revenge is a theme that permeates the entire history of humanity.

The Old Testament is full of who slew whom, for example. And themes such as revenge are played out over and over, with new casts of characters and different-looking offenses but with very little improvement in how we treat one another.

The blog you are reading, however, is predicated on an idea that has the power to transform all of that. That idea is that our experience of the quality of life is a direct result of the story we tell about ourselves and the world around us. And the story we humans have told for thousands of years is that there are oppressors and victims, the powerful and the powerless, the haves and have-nots, and so on, and that’s just the way it is.

That story has as its foundation a hidden assumption: that we are transient visitors to a permanent world and that our experience is a function of accidents of birth, random circumstances, and the actions of others who may or may not have our best interests at heart.

I believe we have the choice to tell a different story.

We can choose an explanation of our being-in-the-world that allows a completely different experience of life. That story identifies our Being as whole and complete. It says that we are souls who make the choice to come forth into a human body in this time-space reality in order to participate in the gradual but inevitable transformation of our human societies into full expression of our true nature.

So yesterday I found myself addressing the soul that made that choice, the spiritual essence that was willing to come to this time and space reality in order to play that role of white policeman, perhaps angry and insecure, perhaps just full of himself, but willing to take out those emotions on a handcuffed black man. I spoke to that soul and praised its willingness to come forth and be the focus of that drama. I am grateful that soul was willing to participate in an event that it could be at least an omen and at most a real shift in our consciousness of white policeman and black citizens and the caste system that defines those dynamics.

I thanked that soul for the willingness to play that role and I know in my heart that we’ve all played those kinds of roles before. That’s because actually we’re all one and all the roles that have been played... we have played. All of us on the planet today are deserving of appreciation to have come forth to play all the roles in this complex drama we call life on Earth, so that this planet can one day become the place in which we have always longed to live together in true peace and belonging.

For more, I invite you to check out my new book, Hoodwinked: Uncovering our Fundamental Superstitions. It will show you a way to think about the roles we humans play here on Earth that allows us more freedom and lots more joy!