When you open your mind and shut out your preconceived notions, judgments, media nonsense and just see these humans as just that, humans. You can lean so much about them and even more about yourself.
I was blessed with the opportunity to meet Rayne. (I changed her name to protect her) She is a thin black woman with long, poufy hair, glasses and doesn't look at all like a drug addict. She is articulate, honest, intelligent and has a huge monkey on her back. She has engaged in street walking to support her demons. Rayne, in all her honesty and openness, made a statement that got my wheels spinning. As she was talking about her stints in rehab and her dealings with others who tried to help her and who have enabled her, she said, "I want to be a successful junkie." This is profound. Knowing that she is a junkie and there is no such thing as a successful junkie, she still longed to be one. She has a side of her that wants to get clean, she wants to support other junkies in getting clean. She longs to have a normal life. She seems to always be looking for ways to be successful in life and still be a junkie.
Our lives are the result of our choices. Sometimes those choices are hard to make and even harder to take action on. Rayne knows her life would be a lot better if she could get sober but she likes to be high. She needs to get high. She's addicted. When we want to lose weight, we don't like to give up junk food. We try to find ways to convince ourselves that we can still eat the junk food. We find excuses. We want to eat the junk food and still be successful. It doesn't work.
We do the same with our finances. Many of us are in debt because we didn't want to change our lifestyles, make financial changes when their necessary. We want to be as successful maintain our lifestyle when our income shrinks. It doesn't work.
Rayne isn't that much different from the rest of us. She desires to be loved, respected, have a nice life, be successful, secure and happy. Just because her demons are different than mine doesn't make me better than her. It doesn't make her value as a human being any lower. She is a person of quality that is suffering, struggling, hurting. To judge her would be to judge myself, my struggles and demons don't have to be with drugs. The bottom line is we all have our demons and struggles. Besides judging the demons and struggles of others, we should have compassion and support each other.
By the grace of Mother and Father Gods go I...
