Dr. Jordan Peterson Widening Gaps between People
As someone who’s found Dr. Jordan Peterson’s teachings instrumental in my own journey towards spiritual enlightenment and greater unity with all humanity, I’m saddened by his seeming detour into the shadow lands of pushing for wider and wider gaps between people in different circumstances, such as people with differing gender identities.
In studying A Course in Miracles, I’m learning that behind all our different bodies, personalities and cultures, we are really one soul, enlivened by both masculine and feminine energies. So on one level, I’m someone who enjoys living in a woman’s body, having male-female sex, and playing the feminine role in a sexual relationship.
But at a deeper level, my awareness is growing that the masculine and feminine are both contained in me because the whole of Creation is contained in me (and all of you, too). I may enjoy or be turned on by a perception of that masculine energy as existing in someone else and being directed towards me — but really, it’s all a part of me.
Just as I need the freedom to live out my gender identity and sexuality in the way that makes me happy, so does everyone else. If cis/straight identifying parents see their children charting different courses, we’re often tempted to worry that it was our flaws that pushed them in a different direction.
We may initially dismiss their different approach to sexuality as a phase or social trend — and if it continues, as a social illness leading to the downfall of civilization. But there’s another, actually helpful, way of looking at it: the world is writhing in intense labor pains right now, because we’re ready to give birth to a whole new way of relating to one another — at both micro (personal) and macro (societal and political) levels.
Lately, I keep coming back to a concept I learned from Congressional candidate Yuh-Line Niou — the idea of bringing the people closest to whatever kind of pain we are talking about together with the tools to effect the change.
One example of this is how my political home Social Democrats USA — SDUSA supports sex workers having the most important seat at the table in drafting the legislation designed to protect them and prevent sexual exploitation. Along a similar vein, those grappling with difficult pregnancies, gender dysphoria or any other crisis, deserve our listening ear (if they choose to talk with us), our love and acceptance, and our respect in the form of allowing them the space and support to figure out their next steps.
We’re moving into an era of intense reverence for one another, where we can just relax and enjoy each other — even and especially our children — letting go of any compulsion to fix what is already beautiful and perfect and doesn’t need any fixing — and here, I’m talking about the PERSON, the SOUL, being perfect, NOT advocating for attachment to a particular physical form. If a person feels happier making some cosmetic changes in their body, I’m for respecting their space to do that. If this person’s not an adult yet, we should support them and their parents and medical professionals having the space and resources to figure out the best path for this individual.
Regarding our world’s transformation: as I learned while giving birth, you can actually slow the process down, and lock yourself into the most uncomfortable phase of labor, by tensing up against the contractions. Let’s all start learning to let go our tensions and fully breathe our way into our next evolution!
