{"id":174,"date":"2022-11-04T08:36:03","date_gmt":"2022-11-04T08:36:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/?p=174"},"modified":"2022-11-04T08:36:03","modified_gmt":"2022-11-04T08:36:03","slug":"the-guns-and-the-bad-guys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/2022\/11\/04\/the-guns-and-the-bad-guys\/","title":{"rendered":"The Guns and the Bad Guys"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week in my Spirit Play class, one of my friends wanted to show me the block structure he made. \u00a0As with all our classroom materials, they are intended to be used one way, in this case to build churches, and they are actually used in a multiplicity of ways. \u00a0I crawled over to his structure and he began telling me about it.<\/p>\n

The Bad Guys<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He told me that inside were the \u201cbad guys\u201d and that he had made towers with guns to shoot them. \u00a0I listened. \u00a0I lost my center for a moment. \u00a0Here I was at church, a place of love, after just telling a\u00a0story<\/a>\u00a0specifically speaking against violence. \u00a0I was uncomfortable. \u00a0I asked, \u201cDo you think the guns are love guns? \u00a0And when they shoot a bad guy, they instantly turn him good?\u201d \u00a0This was followed by a dismissive gesture from my friend and another launch into the dramatic story of the bad guys and the guns.<\/p>\n

I am grateful that I have read the book \u201cKilling Monsters\u201d in which Gerard Jones makes a case for the role of make-believe violence in children\u2019s play. \u00a0The gun, for most of our children is a metaphor and a tool for power. \u00a0They don\u2019t understand the reality of a gun the way we grown ups know it. \u00a0This is one way children play with their own agency. \u00a0They play with the idea of power and using their power to defeat things that are \u201cbad\u201d \u201cscary\u201d and out of their control. \u00a0So, I re-centered and tried to remind myself that this play is actually sacred play as much as anything else happening in our classroom. \u00a0I reeled myself back in and continued to listen. \u00a0Here is what the \u201cbad guys\u201d were doing in there. \u00a0They were angry. \u00a0They stomped into the room and threw their toys all over. \u00a0They threw toys at the windows till they broke them. \u00a0They threw toys and made a big mess. \u00a0They were loud and they yelled. \u00a0Hmmm, with my parent ears on I hear that the \u201cbad guys\u201d were throwing a big tantrum.<\/p>\n

I asked my friend, \u201cWow, those bad guys are throwing toys. \u00a0Do you ever feel angry like that? \u00a0Do you ever want to throw your toys?\u201d \u00a0The answer was no, and he moved on. \u00a0But friends, of course, the answer is actually yes. \u00a0I have been doing my own shadow work lately. \u00a0I have been naming my own bad guys and monsters that live inside my self. \u00a0I have been writing their stories. \u00a0They will always be bad if they have to live in my shadow, cut off from my acceptance and love. \u00a0What I know about this work for myself is that if I cannot face my own evil, my own capacity to harm myself and others that those impulses come out anyway, I just can\u2019t see them for what they are.<\/p>\n

Walking with Black Lives Matter on Monday I had opportunity to witness what happens to the collective shadow when we don\u2019t own it and bring it back into our circle of consciousness. \u00a0Racism, targeting, violence, segregation and separation happen. \u00a0We create bad guys where there are just people; brothers and sisters. \u00a0We create a \u201cneed\u201d for guns when we really need love and witness and community. \u00a0Fear colors our vision and we hurt each other and allow each other to be hurt by the system we have set up and then pretend not to have anything to do with it.<\/p>\n

My little friend doesn\u2019t own his anger right now. \u00a0It may be too scary for him to think about a rage coming out of him that breaks a window. \u00a0And I wonder, what is the offering that can help him express that energy honestly and safely? \u00a0What kind of witness might observe his anger, to see it, see him and take it seriously? \u00a0What would be the best way to honor that true feeling in him? \u00a0And then, what would be the antidote to bring him back into loving connection with his feelings, himself and our larger community?<\/p>\n

Encounters with the shadow are truly terrifying, but we must be willing to hear what the shadow, the monsters, the bad guys have to say. \u00a0Listening brings their stories into the light. \u00a0In the Light we can see that all of those entities bear our own face and they are crying out for witness and understanding. \u00a0In the Light, they lose their power to wound and destroy and gift us the keys to work reconciliation and love and healing. \u00a0What are your bad guys? \u00a0What are they doing in there? \u00a0How can you disarm yourself and offer love and peace?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week in my Spirit Play class, one of my friends wanted to show me the block structure he made. \u00a0As with all our classroom materials, they are intended to be used one way, in this case to build churches, and they are actually used in a multiplicity of ways. \u00a0I crawled over to his structure and he began telling me about it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":175,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-category"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":176,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174\/revisions\/176"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sarahcledwynblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}