FEBRUARY 14, 2017
For months I’ve sensed this time of struggle coming, but even with the internal forewarning I’ve received, I couldn’t have imagined this sudden and consuming shift. No one could have predicted this.
Although the protests, the phone calls, the long trips into the nearest city and the late night wanderings around my house have done much to anchor into my body that we’re in a shit storm of weirdness — it means that myself and many others are waking up.
We had a kind and thoughtful President for 8 years who definitely had some faults, but he was enrolled in an all white school who couldn’t bear a black man as their leader, much less one so capable, smart and compassionate. And he didn’t kiss ass, either. (Entitled people are VERY put off by those who are indifferent to their “betters”. Makes ’em angry… )
This past almost decade I admit, I felt just a bit safer than I have my whole life — even as a woman (which says something). My accepting and liberal minded approach to life felt easier to sink into a bit. The idea that everyone could be valued regardless of gender, race or beliefs was starting to feel like it could possibly become a reality. It felt like we were getting a toe hold into a higher level of human consciousness.
The fact that our country’s administration was concerned about our world and her people — just a little bit was comforting. We had a good person running the show and he was better than most we’ve had in this country. And he was also crucified like most of our notable leaders (consider how many good ones we’ve killed or discounted…).
The first political memory I have was when JFK was killed… I was a four year old, but I remember seeing a bi-partisan weeping for the death of this remarkable president. In truth, I was too small to understand what a fucking miracle that particular coming together was at the time, but I remember it. The next political event I recall was MLK being killed, then RFK, then the Vietnam War protests — including the student protests at Kent State, which resulted in the death of unarmed students by OUR National Guard. And finally I saw hundreds of vets who were homeless, drug addicted and forgotten.
The young people of the 60’s generation, who had started to revolutionize our country, slipped into a deep state of shock — they went numb. Quite literally. Born into the following generation, I came of age in a world full of free sex, consumerism, cocaine and alcohol. They’d replaced the hippy landscape of long hair, flowers, acid and weed with stuff that sped them up and/or depressed them further. The just drank, smoked or consumed themselves into unconsciousness.
There were also the men of that generation (who had dipped into the “love and peace” mentality) who didn’t evolve past their fathers’ behavior… They remained the grasping cretens they had rallied against so vehemently.
Suffice it to say, no one has escaped the overarching double standard and inequity that’s persisted — other than a very privileged few.
There had been a grain of new hope in the early 70’s, but it was destroyed with a country suffering from a collective kind of PTSD… Then a mass addiction to “checking out” emerged. These people, who matured during those years, are now our “leaders” and clearly most have embraced the “dark side” to manage themselves and now, the world.
War, global unrest, hatred, xenophobia, racism, and cruelty is common the world over, while our country and her people have had it pretty good (comparatively). Even with short sighted administrations and all the political bullshit that’s gone on, we haven’t lived in a crippling fear that didn’t let up. What we have been doing though, is slumbering in a state of “it’ll be ok” for decades… especially if your racial, sexual, religious or financial profile afforded that…
Now, we are more united than not, across all those previous distinctions.
Today is Tuesday and a mere 3+ weeks since we started with a new administration. Every day there’s another outrageous news story about what happened overnight and we’re struggling to remain peaceful. You can see the various people on social media, myself included, telling others to pace themselves — we are in a marathon and it’s not going to be over any time soon. Underneath that camaraderie, we’re frightened that our world will start to look more like Nazi Germany then the “land of the free and the home of the brave.”
It strikes me that there wasn’t this massive outreach and activism while we had great leadership. We were — the lot of us — complacent. Now I’m hyper aware of the dysfunctional family I’ve been living in. The sense I’m felt is that we just lost a wonderful father and we’re suffering grief with the loss. To top that off, an abusive, lying, narcissistic, hateful father has moved in, leaving us cowering under the table, or sputtering mad with vulgar signs in our hands & hateful words coming from our mouths.
Most people just want peace. They want to enjoy their lives and give their children a future, love their beloved and feel gratitude. It’s really how we’re wired, us humans. The cruel fact that only 1% of humanity is in control and that 1% tend to be a bunch of power hungry, resource grabbing, shortsighted idiots is creating a divisive underbelly of unrest for the rest of us.
It’s not going to end quickly, this collective anxiety. It didn’t just happen, we brought this on with our complacency and will have to live through a bunch before it’s done. The damage that is becoming more and more obvious and what that’s doing to the very fiber of our country — is forcing change. We are being transformed; suddenly and completely and our power will lie in taking responsibility for where things are and doing our best to retain our humanity while annihilating the obvious cancer growing in our world.
The other day I read something that gave me pause. Although it’s a great idea & I do feel something to act on, how productive is this without a thorough understanding of ourselves.
This was the suggestion;
“ — get a map or an atlas or a globe, and every day spend at least two minutes silently blessing one region of the world. Or perhaps you’ll be moved to pray over the entire globe. Send your love to all living beings in that area. Pray for their happiness and enlightenment, and put yourself at their service. This will bless them but it will also bless you. We can form an interlocking chain of love that blesses the entire world.”
This act would be naive and presumptuous without a sincere focus on our own hearts first. Asking to project acceptance and love towards others, without extending that concern to ourselves, is the height of fanatacism. It’s like uttering affirmations over and over for abundance, but sitting on the couch waiting for it’s arrival.
Regardless of all the back and forth, wringing of hands, fearful statements and outrage lavishly expressed via our social media outlets, we are changing nothing if we discount our own behavior and expect anyone other than ourselves to change things. Become informed. Don’t ignore what’s happening, face it completely and then take a breath.
This is what we have right now; it IS actually occuring. But then… remember who you really are. You are a divine being in a body — powerful beyond measure. The world depends on all of us to rise up and express truth with every gesture we make.
It’s time.
Bless yourself with love and acceptance… with courage and presence. Bless yourself constantly and THEN turn towards the multitudes with your unique power and bless everyone else.
And finally, push back and resist from a place of power… Non-violent, clear and determined and settle for nothing short of absolute truth.