The following essay was published in The Valley Chronicle November 1998, under the headline, "Valley resident admits to being a New Ager."

Copyright © 1998 Ann Carol Ulrich and The Valley Chronicle

RECENTLY I WAS FORCED to overhear a conversation between two members of the human race who were enjoying a session of "New Ager Bashing."

While I sat, trying to mind my own business, they were cutting down the people I relate to most -- and there are a lot of us residing in this valley.

I asked myself what gave them the right to do that.

Let's face it, we can't help categorizing our fellow humans. I admit, I'm guilty of wanting to do it myself. But it doesn't seem right to lump people together into one category based upon a few assumptions. There are always exceptions and many of us carry the traits of many different categories.

I, for one, have considered myself a "New Ager" for well over a decade, and I have observed in consternation the negative traits that non-New Agers have placed upon all of us who consider ourselves to be light workers.

I KNOW WHAT you're thinking. You're asking, what the heck is a light worker?

No, you're wrong if you thought it was an employee of DMEA. A light worker is simply an individual who strives to bring about a more positive result on whatever is happening. You might say a light worker is someone who wants a better world and is doing what she or he can to make the world a more peaceful and a more loving place in which everyone can dwell.

Using myself as an example, I could place myself in several human categories: New Ager, Baby Boomer, Single Parent, Liberal are some that come to mind. I suppose I'm on the fringe of the Hippie category, and yeah, I suppose I'm somewhat of a Computer Nerd.

I believe our government should comprise its people, not rule over them does that put me in the Patriot category?

Am I in the Feminist category if I proclaim the female of our species has every right to be equal to the male? I love God, Her Creation, and believe Jesus was right on, but many Christians might not include me in their category.

There's the Redneck category and the Yuppie category. I live in the country and I like cappucino, yet I don't consider myself to be in either of those categories. I don't think there's anything wrong with being in either of those categories, don't get me wrong. I also happen to sympathize with gays and I have a college degree. But that doesn't make me a lesbian, nor an intellectual.

My point is, stereotyping breeds resentment and division. and just because I'm a New Ager doesn't mean I fit the stereotype of a New Ager in some people's minds. In fact, my idea of a New Ager and theirs are probably two entirely different things. I really like what Mary Summer Rain said about the New Age in her book Bittersweet, published by Hampton Roads:

"New Age is the gentle blend of physics and spirituality -- science meets religion."

MY OWN INTERPRETATION is that New Age is the idea of people cooperating with each other to bring about harmony and balance, as opposed to the "Old Age" of competing and working against each other.

Another unfortunate instrument of the dark forces is the Generation Gap. It's always been there. I enjoy being around older people, and I also enjoy young people. Some would consider me to be middle-aged, although actually I consider myself to be no age. I just am. Yet I feel really young when I listen to the older generation harping once more about how hard it was during the Great Depression and that no young person alive today can understand what it was like to live in that time.

Well, how can they be so certain we didn't? And how can they be certain we won't see worse times ahead? Who are the real heroes going to be?

Then there are times when I feel really old, like when my brain is subjected to some of the cacophonous tones booming forth from my son's stereo. I reflect back to the '60s when my music must have had the same effect on my parents' brains.

Although I don't understand or agree with many of my son's ideas, I do allow him to have those ideas and choices, just as my parents permitted mine three decades ago. There are so many things that divide us. Yet there are so many more things in life that unite us. No matter who we are, what we think, how long we've been in physical form, or whether we think at all ... we share this Earth, its problems, its adventures and delights, and we all have choices. We were all given free will and we always choose to act or react in any given situation. We are all in this together!

It seems to me that the world's problems are not going to go away overnight. And they are not going to go away just by simply wishing them away. We can't hide in the illusion of fantasy, whether it's the phony high-tech society we live in or the fanciful dream world where everything is in balance if you think it is. The only way we're going to solve the world's problems is by working together, by unifying ourselves rather than dividing.

Through cooperation and compassion, understanding and allowing each other to be, we will eventually reach that goal we are all striving for, whether we call it ascension, heaven on earth, peace and harmony, or completion ... the names don't matter. The categories in which we place ourselves are not important. The people are!

Maybe all I've done is ramble. You may agree or disagree with me on many of these points, but at least I had my say, and I hope we all can feel free to do the same.

 

Copyright © 1998 Ann Carol Ulrich. All Rights Reserved.