Emergent President & Beyond

The whole universe is a dynamic emergent process. Everything is constantly coming into being and passing away. And all this bubbling creation and destruction takes place through the portal of this moment and in this very place. Each thing gives way to the next. There are no permanent solutions or even permanent problems. There is just the ongoing beauty, confusion and mystery of being itself appearing now as this, now as that. Sometimes we say it’s going well, sometimes we cry out in despair. All this is included in the wondrous and terrible flowing and frothing of all things.

It looks like Joe Biden will become the next President of the United States. As of this Saturday morning four days after the election, the race has not been called, but Biden is leading in four key states: Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada and Arizona. His leads range from 0.1% to 1.8% with between 93% and 98% of the votes cast. Paper-thin leads, but most have been holding fast or even growing as the remaining ballots continue to be counted. Winning Pennsylvania alone would award him the number of Electoral votes he needs to be elected President.

The popular vote is not nearly as close as the votes in these battleground states. Joe Biden has so far received 74,391,033 (50.5%) votes to Trump’s 70,206,299 (47.7%). That’s four million more votes for Biden than for Trump! Late Friday night Biden gave an update of the ongoing counting and said ‘We’re going to win this race with a clear majority of the nation behind us.’ He continued to urge patience as the counting played itself out, but he was clear and optimistic. Within his campaign, transition planning is beginning in earnest, especially mapping out a new coordinated response to the enlarging coronavirus crisis. (In an ironic side note, Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows and several other White House staffers have just been diagnosed with the virus.)

I am delighted and cautiously relieved that the voting and counting process is proceeding in good order. Many, including Joe Biden’s campaign, thought the remaining states would be ‘called’ by news agencies yesterday, but that didn’t happen. Perhaps today or we may have to wait a few more days. With the stakes so high and the margins so thin, an abundance of caution makes sense.

In spite of Biden’s clear lead in the popular vote and likely victory, our nation remains deeply divided. The hyper-segmentation of news and internet information means that the stories we are living about ourselves and each other are radically different. Reasonable people are caught up in a web of conspiracy theories and fears that are perfectly supported by an information bubble that reinforces itself. The resentment and bigotry that Trump has masterfully stoked for four years will not disappear overnight. It is a part of us all.

Over the past four years, many of us have come to see more clearly the injustice, bigotry and violence that are woven into the fabric of our society. Our self-image as a nation of freedom and justice has been appropriately shaken. All of us are, in some way, responsible for this. We have all been blind to so much. As we rejoice in the likely transfer of the Presidency, we must continue to listen deeply to voices we have not valued. This includes people of all colors and creeds—people who may look and speak differently from us. It includes people who supported different Presidential candidates and have fears and beliefs that seem irrational to us.

How do we begin to acknowledge and heal the grievous wounds we all bear? How do we come to terms with the fact that so many of us have benefited from the injustice and violence we have not wanted to see? How do we deal with our fears of this new emerging world which is so different from the world in which we grew up? How do we create lives of meaning and dignity for ourselves and for each other? How do we form a new relationship with our fragile and failing environment?

These questions and others have no easy solutions, but as we turn toward them with humility and clear intention, perhaps we can together allow the bubbling flow of life to teach and lead us into what comes next.