Breath of fresh air not withstanding, an opportunity will be missed if Trump’s eviction from his rental on Pennsylvania Ave is considered simply the end of a national nightmare. Read More
Trump
Trump says don’t be afraid of Covid. Even the pope says that’s crazy from a man whose disrespect for the virus has caused tremendous harm to the human family. Thing is, Trump’s got a point. Though his meaning of don’t be afraid is on another planet from my own.
There are endless reasons to be mindful of Covid, respectful of Covid, aware of the potential harm of Covid. And all that is possible without being brutalized by the fear of it. The contamination spreads not from a lack of fear, but from a lack of attention, a lack of honest engagement, a lack of common sense you might say.
Of course this isn’t Trump’s meaning at all. Read More
What does the word “tired” mean when someone says, “I’m just so tired of hearing about Trump.”?
I belong to that club myself, and I’ve written I don’t know how many essays about the man. But here’s what I’ve learned along the way. The weariness we feel can open a door to the joy of existence. How? By spurring us to cultivate one of life’s most important skills. Freeing pain.
That’s because pain is exhausting, until we realize we have tools to free it, and use them.
In fact, pain is more than exhausting. As our understanding of addiction deepens, leading voices (such as physician Gabor Maté, author of In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts) contend that at the root of all addiction, no matter the form, is the pain of a psycho-spiritual emptiness a person is attempting to escape. Read More
- If our candidate needed to win in order for us to be happy, we signed up for the ultimate in misery––attaching our happiness to something we cannot control.
- If our candidate did win and we think that’s the reason we’re happy, we’re mistaken. Same if we think our crankiness is due to our person’s loss. Don’t be concerned. It takes most of us lifetimes to realize how impossible either scenario is.
- The most important thing to know about Trump is that he is not responsible for our feelings about him––whatever those feelings are.
- The same can be said about everyone else we’ve ever known.
- How we define our world creates our world. This principle is the root of our every judgment, our every opinion, our every resentment, our every joy.
- The human family’s addiction to drugs is nowhere near as harmful as our addiction to beliefs. And maybe our most malicious belief is that people and events cause how we feel, and thus how we respond.
- Saying “This makes me angry,” is another thing we do a million times until we realize that it’s impossible, and that we’re just trying to avoid taking responsibility for our fear and pain.
- Many things are harmful and call to be changed. But only we make them a burden.
- And when we do, we deny ourselves the gift inherent in every experience: the opportunity to grow our ability to respond with kindness and wisdom to whatever comes our way.
- With enthusiasm, even ferocity, we can fight for or against whatever our heart impels us to address without resentment, condescension, or hatred. Dr. King said one Christmas, “If we don’t have goodwill toward men in this world, we will destroy ourselves.”
- In fact, we needn’t fight “against” anything, but instead align our heart and mind with honoring and creating that which we hold sacred.
- To cultivate lasting happiness, even in the face of perpetual heartbreak, a useful mantra is the question: What am I trying to accomplish that I can control? Discovering and acting on our answers is pretty much all there is to a healthy life: one that doesn’t attach itself to the outcome of an election or any other endeavor, but rather focuses solely on the energy and integrity we invest in a noble aspiration, one that serves the entire human family. Having a peaceful heart, for instance.
Who in their right mind doesn’t have compassion for anyone who finds outrage to be the only expression they have at this time in response to the wreckage of Trump?
And yet, to me, the most harmful part of Trump is not Trump, but the negative feelings we have about him. The many forms of unmanaged fear.
Getting rid of all things Trump is both important and beside the point. There will always be the unwell. Growing our resilience is imperative. Read More
My Other Website
"The push to change the words “nigger” and “injun” in Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn, because the so-called offensive nature of those terms might limit today’s readership and appreciation of that literary classic, is a wonderful opportunity to reflect on how we avoid taking responsibility for our feelings––and therefore miss the chance to become more awake, more whole, more useful friends to one another."
The Essay: The Gold in Niggers and Injuns
