Hating people because of their color is wrong. And it doesn't matter which color does the hating. It's just plain wrong.

Have I placed more value on my status or title than on my character? What perceptions do I have about myself, other people, and the world? Are they aligned with my purpose? Do they reflect the values I claim to have? What is my true nature, apart from my reputation? What values will I refuse to deny because, to do so, I would violate my ideals and ethics?

At the individual level, the great controlling myth of our time has been the belief that within each of us there is a real, inner, private 'self', long buried beneath layers of socialization and attempted cultural and religious control, and needing to be rediscovered if we are to live authentic lives. When we 'discover' this 'true authentic self' , we must do whatever it dictates, even if it means ignoring the norms of the 'unenlightened' society all around us.

When God does the big things, the little people get drawn in too. Human systems often forget that, but God doesn't.

Our philosophies have tended to split the world in two: "science" deals only with "hard facts," while the "arts" are imagined to deal in nebulous questions of inner meanings. Equally, in popular culture, inner feelings and motivations (" discovering who you really are" or "going with your heart") are regularly invoked as the true personal reality over against mere outward "identities.

History is not just about events, but about motivations. Motivations, no doubt, float like icebergs, with much more out of sight than above the waterline. But there is often a good deal visible above the water, often including a strong implicit narrative. We can study that.

Though we sing with the tongues of men and of angels, if we are not truly worshipping the living God, we are noisy gongs and clanging cymbals. Though we organize the liturgy most beautifully, if it does not enable us to worship the living God, we are mere ballet-dancers. Though we repave the floor and reface the stonework, though we balance our budgets and attract all the tourists, if we are not worshipping God, we are nothing.

But what we notice in Mark 10 is something which seems to operate in a different dimension. For a start, it is a call, not to specific acts of behavior, but to a type of character. For

Remember: What you do doesn't determine who you are; who you are determines what you do.

Of course you cannot know a man completely, his character, his principles, sense of judgement, not till he's shown his colors, run the people, making laws. Experience, there's the test.

I really hope no white person ever has causeto write about mebecause they never understandBlack love is Black wealth and they'llprobably talk about my hard childhoodand never understand thatall the while I was quite happy.

I cannot be someone other than I am. How awful.