Leave a Little Room: How One Movie Teaches Us About LOVE!

"God made so many different kinds of people; why would God allow only one way to worship?"

Martin Buber



Muslims against Hindus.

Hindus against Sikhs.

Sikhs against Christians.

Christians against Jews.

That's what I thought about as I sat through this fascinating movie, "My Name is Khan."



If you saw the movie, you know that it is powerful enough that it stays with you for a long time after you leave the theatre. A mildly austic Muslim man taught the world about putting aside all religious differences and speaking the common language of "LOVE!"

What a movie! I highly recommend that you see it!

There is so much about this movie, "My Name is Khan," that has spiritual and redemptive value.


I've always been "open" to people...all kinds of people...all of my life. But growing up, we tend to pick ONLY the people who look like us, because we think they are the only ones we can trust and love.

Well, I'm all grown up now, and I know that whatever your mama told you about "sticking with" your own kind is a LIE!


Obviously, our parents did the best that they could, teaching us values and how to conform to the world. They taught us about taking care of our health and our bodies, our personal and private affairs; they taught us about love.

They also taught us about who and where to worship.




In my case, it was Christianity. So, at a very young age
I learned about Jesus and all he did, like walking on water.


I wondered all my life exactly HOW Jesus could walk on water, until I studied Metaphysics and
found peace in my soul, that, Yes, indeed, Jesus
could have walked on water. "Thank you Jesus!!!"


But as I grew, a very obvious concern began to creep into my Soul!
My key concern was WHY do Christians believe that their way is the ONLY way!

I have posed the question about Jews to really loving people whom I know and asked them that if Jesus were the ONLY way to get to "heaven," then what about Jews?

"Oh, they are going to go to hell!"


Boy, oh, boy.

Now, tell me that ALL the loving and great and beautiful Jewish people whom I know are going to go to HELL, because they don't believe in Jesus!

Pardon my language...but that TRULY IS "B...S..." to me!

Since I've grown spiritually, I've learned to control my emotions.

But when it comes to spiritual ignorance and religious idiocy, I get truly angry, and I learn to quickly, very, very quickly, to disrespect the intelligence of
any person who tries to distance himself or herself from another group of people because they believe they are going to hell because of their religion!


Muslim extremists, too, believe we're going to hell, if we don't believe in the teachings of the Jihad. Read this piece from yesterday's Associated Press headline news:

"Before her daughter disappeared last fall, Christine Mott recalls that the 31-year-old who had been held in connection with an alleged assassination plot announced she had converted to Islam and told her family they'd go to hell if they didn't follow in her steps.

Jamie Paulin-Ramirez also began talking about Jihad with her Muslim stepfather and spent most of her time online as she withdrew from her family, Mott said."

Forget that among Muslims are some of the people who have perpetrated the worst crimes against mankind!

Why is it that logic, commonsense, human decency, intelligence, love... go out the
window when it comes to religious differences with some people?


Why is it that some people cannot think beyond what their well-intentioned parents taught them as children and grow up and still can't think for themselves?

Why is it that we believe that only OUR belief is valid and true?

Let us begin to "leave a little room" in our thinking that we're WRONG!!!


Let us begin to "leave a little room" to extend ourselves beyond ourselves to embrace others of a different color, a different race, a different religion into our hearts.

I'm not saying we need to get into "partnership" or into "bed" with people whose beliefs and practices are so different from yours. But in our hearts we can "leave a little room" for LOVING those people who look different and worship differently than we do.


To Jews, I ask: "What would GOD have you DO?"



To Christians, I ask: "What would Jesus DO?"

To Muslims, I ask: "What would Mohammed DO?"


To Hindus, I ask: "What would Krishna DO?"




To all groups, I ask: "What would GOD...ALLAH...JEHOVAH...YAHWEH... HAVE US DO?"
Within you is the truth. Know and embrace this truth now in your Soul!


As a Christian, I say, "Know the truth and the truth shall set you free!" John 6:32


Get past your religious beliefs and get into the Spirit within YOU...Doing so will allow you to ALWAYS "leave a little room" for others in your heart!




Go see the movie:"My Name is Khan," or make sure you rent the video!

It's powerful STUFF!

Namaste',

Che'

How Death is a reaffirmation of LIFE to the LIVING!

Photos by Susan Ross

My friend's brother was... "put to rest"... this past week. When I spoke with her yesterday, she said everything went well and they were especially comforted by the large number of people who had "shown up" from so many different places in the United States and elsewhere to attend her brother's funeral in Atlanta.

That's when I said something that surprised us both, as it seemed such a revelation: "A person's funeral is a clear demonstration to the living of how that person used his time on earth. It's a reaffirmation of LIFE!"

She then told me that they were so surprised and pleased that the attorney general of the United States, ***Eric Holder, and his wife had flown from D.C. to Atlanta for the funeral of Jake (Jacob Robert) Henderson because he'd known Dr. Sharon Malone-Holder, the attorney general's wife, since their law school days at Columbia University School of Law. Georgia Congressman John Lewis, former U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young and other well-known personalities in Atlanta also attended Jake's funeral.
Former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, with Jake and his wife, Solange.

I expressed surprise that Jake was an attorney, stating that "he was so much more."

We laughed when we thought of Jake being ONLY an attorney.

"He was so much more, wasn't he?" I asked my friend.

The thing that we often don't realize is that we can choose in this one lifetime to play only the role we've chosen as a career: we can choose to be only an attorney, a doctor, a teacher, a sales executive, a life insurance agent et al and only that. Or, like Jake Henderson of Atlanta, we can choose to be so much more...by making the world, our home, and the world of people, our family!


The fact that even though I've known my friend, Shirley Henderson Coleman, (see "Beautiful People" profile this blog: Sept. 5, 2009) so many years and had never once thought of her brother as an "attorney type" speaks to his ability to transcend a SINGULAR role in life.

I asked her, "Can you imagine if he'd chosen to box himself and ALL that he was into ONE SPACE?"

Yes, many people from disparate backgrounds and places had shown up for Jake, because he had chosen to let his Spirit and his Soul expand to its fullest capacity while yet he lived!


We're here on earth for the evolution of our Soul!

We can choose to box it into one aspect of ourselves because we become too scared to live. We become scared to explore and experience the fullness of life and all its concomitant challenges.
Jake pictured with Congressman John Lewis and Former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin.

We can be sure that Jake Henderson lived life to the fullest capacity that he was given and able. He embraced it with fervor at each stage, so no matter WHEN people met that Spirit that was Jake Henderson, they wanted to stay close.

"You couldn't know Jake without loving Jake."

- Dr. Carole Henderson Tyson, Jake's sister

I asked my friend if it were just "attorney types" who had shown up for Jake.

She said, "Of course NOT!"

I would have been disappointed if I'd heard "yes."



My friend, Shirley, explained to me that "people from his childhood showed up...from when he was a little boy...people whom he'd met in the Travel Industry, in his International business, people of all types and from different times and aspects of his life. That's what comforted us."



Yes, isn't it so true that the absence of the Spirit that LIVED is so much easier to bear when many people from many places with so many different faces...black, white, African, Asian, Cuban, European et al...would show up and express grief at the absence of that Spirit/Soul?!!

That's when we know the cessation of the life that the Spirit represented is a testimony to the ESSENCE of LIFE, i.e. what it is ALL about! We cannot live our lives boxed into a role or a state of "BEINGNESS!"Doing so stifles our Soul and limits our potential!

We need to live while we yet still have life and allow ourselves the fullest expansion of our Soul while it yet remains in the body that we know to be us.


Ten years from now, if you have not added one or two people to the list of people you call friends, you should know that you're not evolving. We must continue to evolve, and if we can't look back and see that evolution, then we're "stuck in a rut!"

Don't live in the past! Don't dwell in the past! Don't dwell on failures! Indeed, if you, as some do, think you have had NO failures in life, then you truly have not lived!

You should be attracting new people into your life as you move along life's pathway...touching more Souls...having new experiences that now make up your LIFE!

At the end of your time here on earth, the people who show up for you...whether in volume or in diversity and quality, i.e. people from your childhood and those you met just months before your death, will be a testimony to the life you've lived!


(UPI Photos of AG)

It's all about touching SOULS and getting people like the attorney general of the United States to clear his calendar and be a silent witness to your BEAUTIFUL SOUL!


It's about getting your childhood friend to weep and grieve for the memory of the little boy or girl, he or she will no longer know and be able to "play with."
Jake, pictured with his wife of 14 years, Cuban-Born Solange!

It's about your wife or husband, your kids, your sisters and brothers truly feeling the absence of that wonderful SOUL...as it makes its journey home.

My heartfelt condolences to my friend, Shirley, and her entire family. "R.I.P" Jake Henderson!
Jacob Robert (Jake) Henderson!

You've left such lasting and beautiful memories on EARTH!

Namaste',

Che'

***For full obituaries on Jake Henderson, cut/paste these links:
Atlanta Journal Constitution--http://www.ajc.com/news/jacob-robert-henderson-jr-337345.html
http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta-obituaries-2500.html
NewsMakers Live: http://www.newsmakerslive.com/411.html
http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2010/03/05/attorney-general-eric-holder-bids-jake-henderson-farewell/