Hardly surprising if you were Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung who coined the term synchronicity. I thought about my “task” when responding to people who post comments to social media or drop an offensive comment in a conversation. The thoughts went to responding through curiosity not judging. Then I looked at using questions.
Last night (as I write this), we saw a performance of Rogers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific. We’ve seen it several times over the years. I remembered it, yet I forgot parts. Like this song (written in the late 1940s) that explores hate and racial fears. Ideas compounding upon each other never cease to amaze me.
I offer the lyrics to You’ve Got To Be Carefully Taught by Rogers and Hammerstein from South Pacific for contemplation.
You’ve got to be taught to hate and fear,
You’ve got to be taught from year to year,
It’s got to be drummed in your dear little ear—
You’ve got to be carefully taught!
You’ve got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a different shade—
You’ve got to be carefully taught.
You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate—
You’ve got to be carefully taught!
You’ve got to be carefully taught!
I was cheated before
And I’m cheated again
By a mean little world
Of mean little men.
And the one chance for me
Is the life I know best.
To be on an island
And to hell with the rest.
I will cling to this island
Like a tree or a stone,
I will cling to this island
And be free—and alone.
Faith Venture 
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