Relief and Challenge

I am somewhat reassured to have Joe Biden, as President-elect, beginning to assume the mantle of leadership. Even as Trump holes up in the White House refusing to acknowledge defeat, Biden is, very publicly, gathering his team and setting them to work. How long will the Congressional Republicans allow Trump to pout and obstruct before they insist he acknowledge the obvious? Given their behavior over the past four years, I am not hopeful.

National Republican officials are on a high-speed train with no brakes that is headed toward an immoveable object. Their only decision is when to get off the train. With a leader who operates through fear, ridicule and bullying, it’s hard to know when it’s safe to turn away. Probably never. But I keep hoping that some of them are actually working behind the scenes to promote an orderly transition of power. We’ll see.

In the meantime, I am enjoying the spate of articles in which Biden is saying reasonable things, is talking about ‘lowering the temperature’, and is using his position as President-elect to call our country to unite to slow the spread of the corona virus. In my universe, Trump’s voice has already dramatically receded. I know he continues tweeting and carrying on, but it’s fainter—more and more obviously the disconnected ramblings of a deeply disturbed individual. And while his most vociferous followers will continue to live in the paranoid fear of all things Democratic (and democratic?), my hope is that a number of those who voted for Trump begin to trust the evidence of what Biden is saying and doing.

As the wild anxiety of the past few months begins to tentatively settle, I’m aware of the shifts in my internal universe. I know we’re not out of the woods yet, that Trump will continue to cause as much damage as he can on his way out, but we’re clearly headed in the right direction and I’m appreciating the sense of hopefulness and possibility I’m feeling. But I’m not yet ready to let my guard down.

I’ve become accustomed to a certain level of distress. These past four years and especially these past six months have created a new level of normal for my internal systems. I’m used to bracing myself every time I read the paper or listen to the news. Am I willing to allow the perpetual defensive arousal to subside somewhat? I don’t want to fall back into assuming that someone else will do the job of resistance of injustice and the hard work of social change, but I want to lower the temperature of my internal operating system.

Even with a new President and a government that values reason and collaboration, we are still facing dire issues. Virus rates are rising in almost every state in the country and the coming winter may make it even worse. Police reforms have stalled everywhere as the depth of resistance and the complexity of the problem of systemic racism have become more evident. Many people are suffering economically from the pandemic induced recession and our ‘American’ way of life continues to be based on a level on environmental destruction that has catastrophic implications for this planet and ourselves.

We should all breathe a sigh of relief and appreciate the magnitude of Biden’s victory of decency and truthfulness (not to mention science)—and then begin to pivot to creating sustainable lives of ongoing engagement in this precious and fragile world.

Three Wanderers

Through the golden garden,
the old woman trails easily after
the flaxen-haired toddler—
content to let him find his own way.

Oblivious of her careful efforts,
the smaller wanderer quietly gathers
the detritus of dead leaves, sticks
and stones as casual treasure
offered to his appreciative protector
while she promises the watchful gardener
to replace all his disturbed stones
to their original duty.

The little collector has not
yet learned the desperate
importance of the way things are
and is free to plunder—
borrowing and rearranging
garden borders without malice.

Warm sun shines softly out
of the deep blue afternoon
into the yellow leaves.
They fall singly and in pairs,
silently dancing earthward
from unseen branches high above.

The platinum-headed boy
cares nothing for the gold.
He clutches a dry brown leaf
in equal wonder to the
freshly fallen yellow treasures.

The gardener and the old
woman know the difference
but still smile in wonder of
the gifts and losses of autumn.

Biden Elected!

The thirtieth time I checked my phone yesterday morning, I received the news I was all but certain would come: Pennsylvania was called for Joe Biden, putting him over the 270 vote threshold in the Electoral College necessary to become the next President of the United States! I quickly went upstairs to tell my wife, my daughter and my grandson. We were all delighted and relieved, though my grandson (19 months) appeared to be more interested in his wooden trains than in the Electoral College math of it all.

We talked and read more about it, texting friends and calling my ninety-one year old mother who lives just a little north of Philadelphia. Over the past four years she has been nearly disturbed by Trump and his predations as I have been. I thanked her for delivering Pennsylvania to the Democrats. She was happy to celebrate together and, as usual, deflected the credit.

Melissa and I ‘stayed up’ to watch Biden’s victory speech from Wilmington, Delaware last night. We rarely watch live news on TV – we get our information from the New York Times, the Boston Globe, National Public Radio, the New Yorker and the Atlantic. I mention these media outlets as the media we consume seem increasingly relevant and determinative to our view of the world.

Seeing Kamala Harris take the stage was a moment of real joy. We were delighted to see the first woman, the first Black woman and the first Southeast Asian to be elected to the office of Vice President of the United States. In the midst of our growing awareness of the violence and racism that are woven into the imperfect fabric of our country, this was a clear demonstration of our ‘better angels’—the fruit of hundreds of years of struggle for and progress toward equality and justice.

Harris was strong, clear and inspiring. Her message was one of possibility and hope. Her presence on the stage, before Joe Biden in his big moment, was a huge signal of his respect for her, his awareness of the historic significance of the moment and, hopefully, how he intends to govern by inviting others to work with him. Harris was so impressive that, while watching her, I began to have concerns for Joe Biden coming next.

But Biden did not disappoint. He was energetic, sincere and laid out a vision of healing and possibility. He acknowledged the magnitude of the work ahead with bringing the pandemic under control and ending this polarization that has paralyzed our country. He was folksy, direct and hopeful:

‘Let’s give each other a chance. It’s time to put away the harsh rhetoric.
To lower the temperature. To see each other again. To listen to each other again.  To make progress, we must stop treating our opponents as our enemy. We are not enemies. We are Americans.’

Last night, Biden represented the best of what it means to be a politician. He clearly loved being up on the stage, loved the idea of serving his country and expressed a desire to lead everyone, not just his partisan base. He was inclusive, hopeful and eager to take on ‘The battle to restore decency, defend democracy, and give everybody in this country a fair shot.’ With his lifetime of political experience, his natural inclination toward collaboration and his irrepressible enthusiasm, he seems uniquely suited for an utterly impossible job.

I watched for a while after the speeches to appreciate the fireworks and to listen to the PBS analysts and prognosticators share perspectives on what this moment might mean for our beleaguered country. Several things struck me.

Biden’s margin of victory was not ‘razor-thin’ as it had felt when everything seemed to hang in the balance, but rather typical for these days of partisan politics. And while he did receive more votes than any Presidential candidate in the history of American politics, the person who received the second most votes ever was his rival, Donald Trump.

Almost all the pundits talked about our current polarization as one of the biggest challenges facing the new administration—the one they will have to work with in order to make progress on the pandemic, the economy, the environment, and the many promises of working to end systemic racism.

Also reported was a bit of information from an exit survey of voters as they left the polls. 90% of Biden voters believed that if Trump was elected there would be serious negative consequences for the country. AND 89% of Trump voters believed that if Biden was elected there would be serious negative consequences for the country. If we assume that the relative ‘optimism’ of Trump supporters is within the range of polling error ;-), we’re left with a country in which we have lost all faith in the opposition. The parties now represent not different political choices, but the moral forces of good and evil. This makes collaboration a little more difficult.

Joe Biden spoke directly to this in his remarks when he said: ‘Let this grim era of demonization in America begin to end — here and now.’ As I examine my own feelings toward Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, to mention just a few, I realize this will be hard work.

This morning, I am relieved, happy and only slightly apprehensive. It’s been a long month of tension, fears and hopes. This is a moment to rejoice in the regular functioning of our democracy and in the election of a decent and honest man into the office of the President. There are many weeks till it’s all official and enormous challenges ahead. We must remain watchful and engaged.

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.

Waiting and Watching and Hoping

Five a.m. Friday, November 6, 2020: As of five minutes ago, Joe Biden has finally (and as predicted) overtaken Donald Trump after a long night of counting ballots in Georgia. In that traditionally Republican state Biden is now 917 votes in the lead out of 4.9 million votes already cast and 2% left to go. Unbelievably close.

As I write this, Biden stands at 253 Electoral votes with Trump at 214. 270 is the magic number with 71 votes remaining to be allocated from Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, Arizona and Alaska. If Biden wins any two of these he will win the Presidency. (The AP has already called Arizona for Biden, but the NY Times, my primary news source, has not.)

But the count continues. Biden urges patience with the process. Trump fumes, lies and tries to stop the counting—the counting that seems to be inexorably signaling the end of his elected power. And the rest of us muddle through trying to glean useful bits of information as they trickle through the fire-hose of news and information sources.

At this point nationally, Biden has won 50.5% of the votes cast and Trump has won only 47.7. In national politics, this is a significant difference. Four years ago, to Trump’s everlasting shame, Clinton actually won 48.2% to Trump won 46.1%, but due to the structure of the Electoral College, lost the election. But this year, even with the Electoral College structure favoring Republicans, Biden is poised for victory.

One of the most encouraging signs of the past twenty-four hours was the fact that when Trump called a press conference last night and began rambling on about baseless claims of voter fraud and ballot suppression, ABC, NBC and CBS all cut away from the press conference. I do not believe this President has the capacity to accept defeat. He will continue to lash out against any part of reality that does not agree with his wishes. Trying to stop him or question him or counter with reasonable arguments does not work. Like a spoiled child, even giving him negative attention only prolongs the tantrum and encourages the behavior. But turning the cameras away, turning our attention away, this is the only effective strategy for someone so lost in their own pain and delusion. And some of the major networks did this last night.

In fitting contrast, Biden, along with urging patience for the ‘sometimes messy’ process of democracy, gave a briefing on the coronavirus which infected more than 121,000 people in the United States on Thursday, a record number with cases. Our viral pandemic is escalating in dangerous ways, apparently not believing Trump’s prediction that it would all disappear after election day. So Biden is beginning the enormous job he is (hopefully) about to take on.

But patience is still the order of the day. Patience is often thought of as an old-fashioned value. We are supposed to be confident and assertive. We are encouraged to have a clear plan and to make things happen. We are supposed to be in charge of ourselves and, if we can, of those around us. But life doesn’t really work that way.

In spite of all our efforts, the world and events happen in their own time. Of course we can do things that support or hinder the unfolding of events, but there is a larger pattern of rising and falling that is as dependable as it is unpredictable. And the counting of the votes will take exactly as long as it takes.

A commentator recently used the image of being strapped into a roller coaster to describe why many of us are feeling so anxious around this extended election. ‘It’s like you’re headed up to the top, you know the drop is coming and there’s nothing you can do.’ Being a contrarian at heart, I immediately thought of all the possibilities available to you in that situation—the most fun one being to get ready to throw your hands in the air, scream and have a wonderful ride down.

On second reflection, however, I thought that this image of being strapped in a roller coaster is a reasonably accurate description of being human. Our lives, even our vital signs, are a wave function. Guaranteed. No exception. If you find yourself in the body of a human being who can read and understand these words, there is no way to avoid the ups and downs of life. And these ups and downs can be accurately predicted to come at their own time, not necessarily when it’s convenient for you.

This is the bad news and the good news. The bad news is that there is no escape. There is no life without confusion, difficulty and pain. The good news is that when we take the larger view and accept these things instead of fighting them, life expands and eases—right in the middle of the ups and downs.

The election will be called in the next few days. If Biden wins, even by the narrowest of margins, those of us who supported him should be elated—just as Trump’s followers were delighted with his victory four years ago. We should celebrate and breathe a sigh of relief. Briefly. Then we should turn our attention back to the larger and longer struggle ahead.

Turning toward the challenges and possibilities is what we, as humans, are made to do. We are hard-wired to want to give our gifts in service of the world. To work on something important with people we love is a deep joy. It is not easy or straightforward. There are many setbacks and losses along the way. But the world calls to each of us to step forward and make a difference.

6:10 a.m. – Biden’s lead in Georgia is now 1,096. And so it goes.

The Day After the Day After

I’m bleary and my head aches as I wake up this morning. I spent what seemed like several hours in the middle of last night doing my small solipsistic part to solve the problems of the country. I don’t think I made much progress, but my mind would not give up until exhaustion set in.

Biden seems to be on a narrow path to victory and calls for patience until all the votes are counted. Trump continues his specious claims of victory, reports of imaginary voter fraud and attempts to stop the late vote counting that seems likely to put Biden over the top.

I am encouraged that the vote counting continues as planned and that Biden appears to be poised to gain the electoral college votes necessary to become our next President. It’s comforting to know that Biden has already received more votes than any Presidential candidate in the history of our country. He has not run a particularly inspiring campaign but Biden seems to be a genuinely compassionate human being who has a deep sense of responsibility to our country and our collective future.

On election night, one pundit observed that Donald Trump is the greatest fund-raiser and motivator in the history of the Democratic party. Trump has indeed aroused the passions on both sides. A record turn-out for this election. While many of us hoped the Democrats would be motivated to come out, none of the polls predicted the level of support Trump has received this election—seemingly above his anemic approval ratings that have never reached above 50% at any point in his Presidency.

And so we wait.

I was going to go carry a ‘PROTECT THE VOTE’ sign yesterday afternoon, but ended up deciding that going shopping was a better choice. I honked supportively as I passed the handful of people holding signs in front of the Friends Meeting House on Pleasant Street. I felt slightly guilty, but also somewhat confident that indeed the votes are being counted. So, for now, I have postponed taking to the streets. (Whatever that may mean or whenever that may truly be necessary.)

Now, as we wait, the ongoing conversation is about what this vote says about America. The polarization is vivid. We should, however, remember that a few percentage points swing in either way would turn the election into a ‘landslide.’ Victory is a funny thing. In our democracy, power shifts from one party to the other based on the smallest margins. And like the football team that wins by one or two points, the victor goes on to talk about their superiority that is actually based on the random bounce of an oddly shaped ball.

Robert Hubbell maintains that the Trump message resonating with so many voters is: “The privileged past was better for you, the future is frightening and uncertain.” The dream of the good old days is a powerful one. Based on both truth and imagination it creates a powerful, and ultimately unrealistic, nostalgia. When we focus too much on how things were we have less capacity to meet the challenges and bear the difficulty of the moment.

The future, and indeed the present, is frightening and uncertain. The work for all of us is to see as clearly as we can the challenges and possibilities of what is happening right now. This requires us to see things about ourselves and our unintended impacts that are painful and dispiriting. But until we see our current reality more clearly, we cannot move toward the dreams, principles and values that call to us all.

Advice for the day:

1) Feel your feelings,
2) Remember your purpose, and
3) Take the next step.

Election Hangover

I had hoped for a blue wave and a clear Biden victory though I knew the odds were small. As I write this at 5:30 a.m. on November 4th, the Presidential election is too close to call and looks like it will remain this way for several days. And, as predicted, Trump is making wild claims and threatening to go to the Supreme Court to claim his rightful victory before all the votes are counted.

I am incredibly disappointed that the election is this close. Trump, in my eyes, for the past four years, has so clearly mounted an all-out attack on our democratic institutions, has used whatever means at hand to enrich himself and his corrupt friends, has weakened our country internally through sowing discord and hatred, and diminished our national standing in the whole world. I am amazed and astonished that nearly half of the electorate still prefer him to Joe Bidden.

Biden may still be our next President, but the division in our country, the alienation from the news reported and fact-checked by mainstream media is deep and visceral. The chasm between red and blue America is wide and vast. How will we ever come together? Have the internet and the news bubbles so easily created and maintained brought us to parallel stories of reality that will never intersect? Trump’s continual and self-serving assault on the verifiable truth is still supported (or at least tolerated) by a huge swath of our country.

I heard Elizabeth Warren, Democratic Senator from Massachusetts and former Presidential hopeful, interviewed on the radio yesterday afternoon. She had just voted in person at her local elementary school and enthused about filling in the little bubbles on the ballot as a real-time demonstration of democracy at work. The good news this morning is that the election still happened, that the turnout was at historic levels and that the predicted violence did not happen. This is good news for all of us.

Warren was optimistic, as were all Democrats interviewed yesterday that Biden would win and the Senate would shift blue. I haven’t yet looked deeply into the news, but it looks like the Senate will remain in Republican control. Despite the huge amounts of money contributed to defeat Lindsey Graham and Mitch McConnell, both of these staunch Trump enablers have retained their seats.

But Warren also made a clear call for continued activism. Even in her dream of a Bidden Presidency and a blue Senate, she called for all of us to remain engaged. Democracy is not a spectator sport that happens every two or four years. The real work of our society—dealing with the pandemic, institutional racism, income inequality, opiate addiction and environmental degradation—all these are ongoing and deeply challenging issues. Warren called us all to stay engaged for the long haul, whatever the outcome.

There was some other thing I saw as a positive development. What was it? It’s fled my mind along with the fantasy of a dramatic shift in the tone and complexion of our government. Now I remember, it was the appearance of the news analysts on PBS last night. We don’t get cable so I didn’t see the other networks, but the analysts on PBS seemed to be at least half or more women. Brown and black people were also prominently visible. I’m sure someone will do the exact counting and comparing, but to see and hear significantly more diversity, even at PBS, is a heartening sign.

I’ll close this morning with the words of Richard Hubbell, who sends out a daily newsletter of information, perspective and inspiration that I find reassuring:

We must maintain our resolve. During difficult periods in the last four years, I have invoked the memory of the late Congressman John Lewis. As a young man, he marched with other brave men and women who sought to bring attention to the need to guarantee voting rights for Black Americans. Lewis, along with dozens of others, was brutally beaten while attempting to peacefully walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge near Birmingham. Lewis’s skull was fractured, and he spent several days in the hospital. When he was discharged from the hospital, he rejoined his colleagues for a second march across the bridge. John Lewis did that for us, so that we could vote today. His act was selfless and forward-looking. He was a prophet of a future not yet fully realized, but one that is inexorably approaching because men and women like John Lewis were able to transcend the moment. John Lewis did not give up, did not feel sorry for himself, did not bemoan his circumstance, did not calculate the odds, did not stay in the fight only if he was winning. When he died, John Lewis was eulogized by three American presidents. Those who beat him are remembered today as symbols of the ugly legacy of slavery.

While we are waiting for votes to be counted after a surprisingly peaceful and uneventful Election Day, we must not give up, we must not feel sorry for ourselves, we must not bemoan our circumstance, we must not calculate the odds, we must not stay in the fight only if we are winning. Through our activism and resistance, we have become prophets of a future not yet fully realized. But it is the future that is rushing inexorably towards us because of our efforts over the last four years.

Let us take our role as prophets of the future seriously—for our children and grandchildren. Let us continue to work toward a just, equitable and sustainable future for all. Let us not measure our actions by the yardstick of momentary victories and setbacks, but by the importance of the goals we cherish. Let our actions reflect our highest aspirations and our words spring from the deepest and fiercest love we know.

Election Day Tips

Election day. A cold rain is coming down in the early morning dark here in central Massachusetts. In a few hours, I’m going to vote: carefully and in person. I’m going to vote in the election that both sides are calling the most important Presidential election of our time. Certainly the choice of candidates is stark and many of us are anxious both about the process and the results.

Relentless media coverage will continue through the day, will amp up around seven or eight and will carry on through the night. There are a few key states, like Florida, that will have early returns so there may be some early indication of final results, but votes will continue to be collected, counted and verified over a period of days and weeks. We will not know who won the popular vote for some time.

I fully expect Donald Trump, if he is ahead at any point in the count this evening, to declare victory and to do everything in his power to stop the further counting of votes. We all need to brace for this likelihood as well as for his other specious claims and insults. We all must do everything in our power to ensure that any illegal actions he encourages or orders through his tweets and rants remain just the final howls of a defeated strong-man. I hope that true Republicans at every level will join with the rest of us in defending the values of our democracy rather than bowing down to the outrageous demands of a want-to-be dictator who refuses any truth, however blatant, that does not give him what he wants.

We’re in for difficult times ahead.

I’m hoping for the best—a landslide victory for Joe Biden, a Democratic Senate and a relatively peaceful transfer of power. But I have also located a few socially distanced local gatherings on Wednesday to support the ongoing vote count and democratic process. I have also talked to most of my pandemic ‘bubble-mates’ about my intentions, as every exposure risk I take is a risk for each person in my bubble. (If you’re looking for actions in your area ChooseDemocracy.us is a reliable site that is providing resources to support organizing around nonviolent proactive measures to ensure our democratic processes are honored.)

In the meantime, there are a lot of minutes and hours—and probably days, weeks and even months of uncertainty ahead. How do we live in a world where our future feels so precarious? How do we live with a level of fear and potential violence that is utterly unfamiliar for many of us? And all this in the midst of a pandemic that not only is continuing but is rising with no end in sight?

A few tips that may help:
1) Take time to shrink your field of attention. Staying current and informed are important, but the daily acts of living are equally important. Detach yourself from your news device and turn to the immediate world around you—the running water that comes out of your faucet, the smell of coffee brewing, the way the morning light slowly illuminates the view from the window, the sensation of the breath that has so faithfully sustained your life all these years. Just this.

2) Appreciate the people in your life. (Even the difficult ones.) Whether you live alone or with others, we all have people in our lives that are actually part of who we are. Take time to notice and appreciate those people, near and far. There is no such thing and an ‘individual’ human being. We are all (even you) part of an intricate network of relationships of mutual nourishment as we rub up against each other, irritate and delight each other—both in person and afar. (As I write this, I am aware that even my dead father is still a part of my life–still sustaining and troubling me.)

3) Give yourself to what you are doing in the moment. We often suppose that the meaning of our life is somewhere else. But life only happens in this place where we are. Don’t hold back and wait for things to settle down. I don’t think that is going to happen, and even if it does, you might not be here to enjoy it. The precious gift of life is happening right where you are, don’t miss it.

4) Stay informed, but limit your intake of news. Constant consumption will serve the interests of media moguls who measure success in eyeballs on the screen, but will not serve you or your country. When you do watch, appreciate being entertained, informed, outraged, contradicted and confirmed. Media consumption at a time like this is a roller coaster guaranteed to stimulate and disturb you. When you do turn it on, prepare yourself for the ride and have an exit strategy in mind.

5) Consider that this is the time you were born for. All your life has led up to this point and you have the resources and skills to make a difference right here. You may not yet know what it is you are called to do. It may be much smaller or much larger than you had ever imagined. But your thoughts, words and actions have impact beyond what you can know. Stay awake to the possibilities and opportunities of this turbulent time.

Disillusionment Is The Beginning

The election is coming tomorrow and it’s just the beginning. The forces of division, greed and anger that Trump has aroused will not dissipate, whatever the result. Win, lose or delayed decision, Trump will continue to do everything in his power to stoke division and even violence. We must all vote and then peacefully, but with clear intention, do whatever is necessary to support the counting of all votes and the playing out of our legitimate democratic processes.

But it’s important to be clear-eyed about what we are dealing with. In a powerful op-ed piece in the New York Times last Friday, Don’t Fool Yourself: Trump Is Not an Aberration,  Jamelle Bouie eloquently points out that Trump’s Presidency, (‘the casual insults, the vulgar tweets, the open racism, the lying, the tacit support for dangerous extremists and admiration of foreign strongmen’) has only been possible because of pre-existing and still-existing currents in our American society. Bouie writes:

‘For as much as it seems that Donald Trump has changed something about the character of this country, the truth is he hasn’t. What is terrible about Trump is also terrible about the United States. Everything we’ve seen in the last four years — the nativism, the racism, the corruption, the wanton exploitation of the weak and unconcealed contempt for the vulnerable — is as much a part of the American story as our highest ideals and aspirations. The line to Trump runs through the whole of American history, from the white man’s democracy of Andrew Jackson to the populist racism of George Wallace, from native expropriation to Chinese exclusion.’

I often catch myself blaming Trump and the Republicans that have empowered him for disrupting the comfort and predictability of my privileged life. Trump has brought out into the open the forces of oppression, racism, sexism and nativism that, as Bouie says, ‘run through the whole of American history.’ But without these pre-existing currents, Trump would have remained a pretentious and self-congratulating con-man. Bouie goes on to say:

And to the extent that Americans feel a sense of loss about the Trump era, they should be grateful, because it means they’ve given up their illusions about what this country is, and what it is (and has been) capable of.

This reminds me of my sense of shock and disbelief in the days and weeks after Clinton’s loss four years ago. Trump seemed such a ridiculous mix of bluster, lying and fear-mongering, I couldn’t believe that people would actually vote for him. In the aftermath, I came to realize how unaware I had been of the depth and prevalence of the currents of dissatisfaction, alienation and fear in our country. Trump’s election four years ago proved that our country was not working for vast swaths of people who felt unseen, unheard and helpless in the face of the increasing cultural and economic changes of the times.

Over these past four years, I have continued to be shocked and disillusioned with our county. But much that has been hidden has come into the open. Trump’s anti-example has fueled the Women’s March and the unprecedented number of women entering politics, the MeTo movement which brought violence against women into the open, the Black Lives Matter actions that has brought awareness of systemic racism into our everyday conversations—all of this is a positive response to the loss of our comfortable status quo. The casually embedded inequities and violence of our vaunted ‘American Way of Life’ have been exposed for all to see.

These past four years have been painful for many of us and, in some way, necessary. Necessary because there is no other possibility—no other thing that could have happened, because this is what did happen. And necessary because only when we are willing to see and acknowledge the entrenched institutional inequities in our society can we begin to genuinely come together to move our nation toward its stated values and promises. Again I quote Bouie:

‘Perhaps more than most, Americans hold many illusions about the kind of nation in which we live in. We tell ourselves that we are the freest country in the world, that we have the best system of government, that we welcome all comers, that we are efficient and dynamic where the rest of the world is stagnant and dysfunctional. Some of those things have been true at some points in time, but none of them is true at this point in time.’

Whatever happens tomorrow is just the beginning. The fight is not really with Trump or even with the Republicans. It is a fight against disinformation, accusations and violence, wherever it occurs. We must stand up and be counted in the voting and after the voting to preserve and enhance our democratic forms of governance for the benefit of all. America IS an exceptional country. We were founded with soaring aspirations for a society of possibility. The right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are the promises we have made to each other. Now we are called, as generations before us have been, to give our energies to make these promises true.

The Final Word

A friend recently asked me ‘if belief in reincarnation is necessary to travel the Zen road.’ He claims that as he prepares to pass the ¾ century mark he feels some increasing interest in finding closure. So I offer a few words to my friend and to everyone reading.

The historical Buddha lived sometime around 550 BC in what is now northern India and Nepal. He gathered large numbers of followers as he wandered through the countryside but he established no monasteries and left behind no written words. His teachings were passed on orally for several hundred years before they began to be written down. When people began writing down what had been orally transmitted, these writings, or sutras as we call them now, were rich, varied and self-contradictory.

Re-incarnation was a common belief of the Hindu environment in which the Buddha taught. Many of the original sutras talk explicitly about the goal of practice being to escape this endless cycle of rebirth—that we will be born over and over until we finally see the full truth of the Buddha’s teaching. This teaching of reincarnation and focus on a path of many lifetimes to freedom is often thought of as a part of Buddha’s original teaching.

But in a number of the sutras, the Buddha is clear that Buddhism is not a path of belief in a set of religious or philosophical truths. The Buddha once said, ‘A proponent of the Dharma does not dispute with anyone in the world.’ Stephen Bachelor in his detailed exploration of these issues in AFTER BUDDHISM adds: ‘The Dharma cannot be reduced to a set of truth-claims.’ Later on Bachelor reports that his personal Buddhist path ‘has led me away from a religious quest for ultimate truth and brought me back to a perplexed encounter with this contingent, poignant, and ambiguous world here and now.’

‘A perplexed encounter with this contingent, poignant, and ambiguous world’ is a lovely description of the Zen way. The Zen tradition can be seen as a reform movement in Buddhism arising in medieval China. Zen was a reaction to the codification and solidifying of Buddhist teachings into something at odds with the primacy of experience over dogma that the Buddha taught. Zen claims that all the wondrous teachings of the Buddhist tradition are contained in each moment of our reciprocal encounter with life itself. The true Dharma is beyond whatever can be said or written or even thought.

I’ve often repeated the story of the student who comes to the famous Zen master and asks: ‘What happens to us after we die?’ The Zen master replies: ‘I don’t know.’ The student persists: ‘How is it that you don’t know? Aren’t you a Zen master?’ The teacher replies ‘Yes, I am a Zen master, but I am not a dead Zen master.’

Anything we say about the life that happens after the life we know in this moment is speculation. But we can know the life-and-death of this moment. We can also appreciate that all of us are continually ‘reincarnated.’ I used to be the father of a young daughter, now she is the mother and I am the grandfather. I used to be able to shovel snow, go skiing and then get on with the rest of my day. Now I shovel snow and then come back inside to rest for a while.

Each morning I am reborn as myself again. I do best when I can be curious about who I am this morning and not assume that I am simply who I was yesterday. In this way, I find the teachings of reincarnation quite accurate and helpful. But I am quite skeptical of anyone who claims to have the final word on the shape and size of life. Even the final word of Zen is not to be trusted.