frenemies

I'm experiencing another synchronistic convergence of ideas today, this time about the value of "enemies."

I've written before about the children's book The Little Soul and the Sun: A Children's Parable Adapted from Conversations With God in which the author, Neale Donald Walsch, suggests that perhaps our most despised enemies here on Earth are actually our closest friends on a soul level. Who but a dear sweet friend would agree to perform the seemingly dastardly acts that so often inspire us to grow our roots and expand our wings?

Today I watched the movie Milk. The main character, Harvey Milk, a gay man who was elected to the office of City Supervisor in San Francisco in the 70's, expressed a similar sentiment about a famous singer who vehemently and vociferously campaigned for the repeal of several local ordinances that prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation. Milk was quoted as saying: She's going to create a national gay force.

Isn't it beautifully ironic that the seeds of tolerance can sprout and thrive from composted bigotry? By speaking publicly, passionately, and unapologetically of her prejudice, she brought the issue of discrimination based on sexual orientation to America's breakfast table. And she inspired an eventual outpouring of support for the very cause that she campaigned so persistently against.

I've heard the same thing said about our previous president: Things got so bad during his administration that many people awoke from their stupor of complacency and voted for change.

So I checked my email after the movie, and a friend had recommended a book called A Window of Opportunity. I visited the website of the author, Sherri Cortland ND, and while I can't say I'm totally on board with all of her hypotheses, I should not have been surprised to find that she's been blogging about a concept she calls Relationship Villains. Which are, of course, exactly what Neale Donald Walsch was talking about -- soul friends who agree to provoke us into learning, experiencing, or accomplishing exactly what our own souls intended to do. And these frenemies willingly take the risk that we might forget who they really are, and in doing so, react to their gift with rage, contempt, or revenge.

I suspect that good and bad, helping and hurting, greed and generosity, are not inherent in any act. Perhaps we alone determine the ultimate value by how we choose to respond.