So I just wrote about the whole kneeling during the national anthem thing that’s been going on in sports here in the US, particularly in football and soon to be basketball. Well, I saw yesterday that some of these athletes have been receiving death threats. Death threats? For kneeling during a song? Yay, America!! That’s pretty intense. The article I saw mentioned Seattle Seahawks receiver Doug Baldwin, who is a native of my awesome hometown of Pensacola. I always have to get that shameless plug in there… “I had a few,” Baldwin said. “A couple of people told me to watch my back. If something was to happen to me, I think that would just further prove my point that there are issues in our culture, in our society that need to be changed.”
Baldwin also said that the threats will not stop him from speaking up. Remember the amazing and transformative book that I recently wrote about, Dying To Be Me by Anita Moorjani? One of the main things she learned while in the out of body state (and before her miraculous cancer comeback) was that the power of what we really are, call it the soul or whatever – and this is true for everyone, without exception – is freaking immense. Immense. And it needs to come out to play; I guess that’s why it’s here. She learned that since she didn’t allow herself to simply “be herself,” always thinking about what others expected of her and what she thought she should be, this power was stifled. And power has to move, energy has to go somewhere; it’s the law. And so it expressed itself in the form of cancer. So we must be ourselves and live! And these athletes, and many other people in this country now, are the same way. They just aren’t able to keep quiet anymore.
Recall that the one that started all of this, Colin Kaepernick of the San Fransisco 49ers, who has also received death threats, said he’d been thinking about this for months, trying to figure out what he could do. Finally, he could not “sit on the sidelines” anymore, so he did sit – during the national anthem. And look what it has caused. But he could not be silent anymore. He felt such a huge movement inside of him that he had to do something. That’s the soul speaking up.
Anyway, I just wanted to write a little update when I learned of the death threats, and how these people still can’t be quiet. Think about that for a moment. And you might remember a time when something was so important to you that could no longer be silent. Their soul, their heart, cannot sit on the sidelines anymore. Because if it’s stifled, they might as well be dead. And we all know that there are so many people here on earth now that are pretty much the living dead. And I know earth isn’t the easiest place to live, so it’s certainly not a judgment. I’ve been that way plenty, just going through the motions. But we’re starting to wake up to what we really are, which apparently is amazing and unlimited. I’ll take some of that! And in the meantime, maybe you’ll notice a force inside of you that can’t be stifled anymore. If so, then feel free to experiment with letting it out of its cage. Hey, you can always put it back in. Or maybe not, ha. Baby steps are just fine. And if you’re not ready to stand up all the way, you can always kneel.
P.S. From an article I read: “Baldwin has spearheaded the Seahawks’ ‘Building Bridges Task Force,’ which is composed of players who are meeting with local law enforcement officials and politicians to promote social change.” Things are happening, folks! Changing big stuff like culture can be like turning the Titanic, but it has to start somewhere. So this really is cool. And it all started with one dude sitting down during the national anthem and not even telling anyone about it. Because his soul, his heart, could not stand.