The Compassionate Warrior: Social Justice

As you walk the inner spiritual path, you’ll find that you become a compassionate warrior.

You become a compassionate warrior of social justice, which is expressed as a deep desire to motivate others to rally for change within the self and society. “Social” represents community enacted through collective group action and “justice” represents fairness enacted through honesty and integrity. As a tool of compassion, social justice means common fairness extended to groups of people as well as the individual self.

Social justice can be demonstrated on the personal level as well as the public level. You can motivate yourself to enact change within your own life. In turn, your demonstration of compassion, love, and acceptance influences and inspires others in the world around you. This was the powerful example of the life of Gandhi. Through his actions, others learned how to encompass the ideals of his teachings on nonviolence, peace, and compassion.

Social justice can be enacted through outward actions, such as peaceful activism and compassionate work done for the greater welfare of others. Gandhi, Jesus, Martin Luther King, Jr., and others throughout history have shaken up conventions that oppress certain groups of people and favor others. Through nonviolence, these leaders reminded others to seek peace through commonality and compassion. Social justice takes on many forms, from Jesus reminding a fallen woman that she is a child of God, to Martin Luther King, Jr. sharing his dream with millions for equality and freedom among all Americans.

I experienced the compassion of social justice from a woman and child I do not know. My then four-year-old son, Tristan, and I were leaving a local bagel shop when he stopped at the table of an African-American mother and her son. Tristan said hello and asked what they were eating. After chatting for a few minutes, he pointed out that the mother and son both had skin darker than his own “normal” colored skin.

I immediately cringed and did not know what to say.

“Thank you for noticing differences,” the woman replied graciously. “What else do you see that is different between us?”

Tristan pointed to her son’s brown eyes, and the boy in turn pointed to Tristan’s blue eyes. They pointed to each other’s hair and after inquiring, they both found that her son was older than Tristan.

We wished them both a good day and left. As I was driving home, I thought about how Tristan had called his own skin color normal. I know that he was using the language of a four-year-old to point out someone different he encountered his small world. But as I thought of the woman’s smiling son, and I did not want that child to ever think that he is not normal.

As I unbuckled Tristan’s car seat at home, I talked about all the shades of normal that exist in life, from different colors of skin to different cultures around the world.

“Why are there so many different people?” he asked.

“God made many unique colors, races, and nationalities of people to remind us of the beauty and love God put in each person we meet. So there is no one normal skin color, just people of many colors, many beautiful expressions of God’s love,” I answered, hoping that I had used simple words like the woman had to touch his heart.

That woman’s compassionate response to a young boy encouraged me to step beyond my initial embarrassment and talk to my son about seeing the beauty and commonality in every person he meets. In the process of watching another mother teach my child, I learned a lesson about social justice and the power of compassion.

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