Don’t Believe the Make Believe: Listen Critically, Feel What We Feel, But Watch Carefully What He Does

One of the best articles I read recently about DT’s attempts to shred our lives and the Constitution was an opinion piece by Ezra Klein in the NYT titled “Don’t Believe Him.”  DT wants us to mistake him for someone in command, someone with a sense of inner power and utter strength. He wants us to “believe he is already king,” so we will let him govern as a king.  Don’t believe his hype. He’s trying to attack so quickly and chaotically to shock us, so we don’t see who he really is⎼ a man in a political position of tremendous power and responsibility, but who is vindictive, frightened, power hungry, and too weak to hear opposing views or to work step by step with others.

 

Just open a news feed. Today mine began with a Reuters article about DT negotiating with Russia about how to end the war with Ukraine, calling the Ukrainian leader, who has led one of the smartest, strongest, and bravest counterattacks against an immoral and violent invader, “a dictator without elections.” “Zelensky better move fast,” said DT, “or he is not going to have a country left.” DT, seemingly acting in the interests of dictator Putin, basically blamed the Ukrainians for the Russian assault on their own lives and freedom.

 

DT, with Musk’s help, has been moving chaotically and at incredible speed to devastate our federal workforce. His executive orders and mass firings will affect every aspect of our lives. People who are losing their jobs and income are those who hire, manage and fight devastating fires, rescue us from floods and assist our recovery from disasters. They send out Social Security checks and tax returns, approve surgeries, doctor visits, and medicines for the elderly, provide childcare and healthcare information to educate and protect children, and defend us all from foreign and domestic criminals and terrorists. Those fired were given little notice and no justification. Just imagine all the pain this is causing in thousands or millions of lives!

 

In the meantime, our personal information once securely held by the IRS and other government agencies has been or is intended to be made accessible to agents of Musk and DT. According to a suit by labor and tax payer organizations, the information is being exposed in an “arbitrary and capricious manner,” and without compliance to Privacy Act requirements and IRS policies and procedures, to agents without the training, and commitment to security and the law that the career employees had. Imagine what DT could do with this information to take revenge on those who oppose him, or to rip away power and money from the great majority of us and give it to the tiny minority of ultra-rich.

 

All this is supposedly to look for fraud and waste. But such an investigation takes time and sophisticated investigations. DT said these cuts would also bring down the deficit. But according to the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, his policies would substantially add to the deficit. His goal to cut taxes on the rich and corporations, as well as Social Security, etc. could add $5 trillion to the deficit, while undermining the future of SSI, for example, or undermine the future of our nation.

 

Another article provided the latest example of the spitefulness, smallness, and vindictiveness of DT’s administration. Three migrants from Venezuela, with no criminal records, brought a suit against the government’s attempt to imprison them at Guantanamo Bay. They won the suit one day; and on the next, they were immediately taken to a plane and deported to Venezuela.

 

DT continues to devastate workers throughout the government. For example, he capped NIH funding at 15%, which means firing the people who support the scientists engaged in medical research into diseases, medicines & other treatments, including cancer, viruses, etc. This could totally wipe out life-saving treatments we all need.

 

One of DT’s executive orders stopped 13 operating divisions of HHS from sharing external communications. On Nicolle Wallace, on MSNBC’s Deadline: White House,  informed us that the flu has led to a “serious condition called acute necrotizing encephalitis,” but DT ordered the CDC to hide information on this and other illnesses. This temporarily interfered with the media sharing information to inform parents about the effect of the flu on children’s brains. And then there’s the bird flu. Among those fired (and later re-hired) were those from the Department of Agriculture who had been working to respond to the bird flu outbreak.

 

In Texas, the Health Service alerted the public to a measles outbreak amongst unvaccinated children happening now in Gaines County, Texas. After all the cuts to Federal health officials and RFK, Jr.’s approval as Secretary of Health, would this information even be shared with the public?  ….

 

*To read the whole article and the light in the middle of the dark, please go to The Good Men Project.

What I Learned from My Dad that He Never Knew He Taught Me: We Never Know What an Experience Will Teach Us

When we’re in the middle of anything, we of course don’t know the ending. But even more, we never know what it might teach us. We just don’t know.

 

My Dad died when he was 96. For the last 4 years or so of his life, it was often painful or frustrating to be with him. Luckily, beautifully, he remained mentally sharp right until the end, but physically, it was a different story. It was painful to see his pain, and frustrating because he took so much time to do anything, from the smallest details to the largest.

 

And he wasn’t always good tempered about it, either, or good tempered with other people. He usually started very polite and upbeat. But if anything didn’t go as he thought it should, like in a restaurant with a server, he’d get annoyed or angry. Maybe he was as frustrated with his own physical slowness as I sometimes was with him, and he let it out instead of restraining it. Maybe he just didn’t have energy left for restraint.

 

He had difficulty accepting his new limitations, as many of us do as we get older. We retain so clearly this image or feeling of when we were younger. When we’re a teenager or in our 20’s, we might be more focused on the future then the past, or on images of what we dream of becoming. When we’re 50 it might be of being 20 or 30. When we’re 70, it’s of being 35 or 50, maybe. But what is it when we’re 96?

 

We carry this conflicting sense of ourselves in our mind and body, a conflict between image and reality, memories or thoughts of other times, and NOW. We think and often feel like we’re much younger than we are, until a medical issue makes itself felt; maybe we have a pain we never had when younger, or we can’t hear or see as well. Or when, like my dad, one minute we can do something seemingly like we’ve done it for twenty or more years. The next moment, it takes us so long to do even the most basic things.

 

And there were days my dad called us to say he went to the ER that morning; and I wondered if he had to do that, or was he just frightened by his aging body.

 

One time when my wife and I we were visiting him, we were awakened by a noise in the middle of the night. We got up and saw my dad getting dressed to go out. He said he was about to call an ambulance to take him to the emergency room. We asked him what was wrong and if he was in pain. I think he was feeling short of breath, but I don’t recall his exact symptoms. He said don’t worry; he’d just go to the ER on his own, and we should go back to bed.

 

I thought the ambulance unnecessary and said we would drive him; we wanted to be with him. We argued about it for a few minutes. And then he started to sound more normal. The more he talked with us, the more his symptoms seemed to subside. He paused for a moment, apparently thinking it all over. And said he felt better. We should all go back to bed.

 

And now, for me, in my later 70s, these images of my father come back to me, almost like a message. When I have back pains that make walking difficult, I see my father walking slowly with a cane or walker. I understand better how he might have felt back then. Or I have a sharp pain in my chest and have trouble breathing and can’t tell if I should go to the ER, and I remember my dad. I wonder if what I felt was being exaggerated by fear and the unknown⎼ or was I having a heart attack?

 

And I remember how our talking with him, our show of love, seemed to soothe his pain….

 

*To read the whole article, please go to The Good Men Project.

There’s (Almost) Nothing Normal About These Times: Stop the Pretense in the Press; Work to Stop the Destruction and Create Something Positive

Listening to news media can be a confusing act nowadays. There’s the political chaos caused deliberately by DT and company to shock us. Then there’s the reporting itself; for example, if a newscaster shows a clip of a speech by DT that’s totally filled with lies and threats to our lives⎼ and then, later the reporter shares that DT had no evidence for what he had said, the damage has already been done. People have already heard the lies spoken as truth. Or the reporter might describe an attempt to destroy the rule of law or invade an ally and then talk about a sporting event.

 

Or over the last few weeks, many commentators have shown a limited perspective on DT’s “shock and awe” campaign. Even on MSNBC, which often provides a needed perspective on events, provided examples of normalizing him. But there’s nothing normal about these last few weeks (or years). Ari Melber, who I normally like to listen to, called DT ’s cabinet picks “disruptors.” Disruptor, really? Destroyer, maybe? Violator? Disruptors is the same term used in a positive manner by DT insider Jason Miller, or GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson to describe nominees like Musk, RFK, Jr., or Vought.

 

Scott Dworkin pointed out the White House press office initiated a new strategy to help control news coverage and perspective. They’ve begun to feature the asking of pre-scripted questions to DT’s Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt by “new” MAGA media stars, like John Ashbrook or others from Breitbart, et al, in the White House briefings. At the same time, they’ve kicked the NY Times, NPR, and NBC News from their workspaces and replaced them with MAGA propaganda outlets like One America, Breitbart, the NY Post, etc. Yet, NBC ridiculously responded they were “disappointed.” And the NY Times called it a “concerning development.”

 

Jonathan Capeheart, on MSNBC, appropriately described several DT nominees, like Kash Patel and Tulsi Gabbard as grossly unqualified. Yet, that’s another understatement. What about their character and pledge of allegiance to DT? And add RFK, Jr, to run the Health Department and Pete Hegseth with the defense department⎼ and nearly the whole cabinet?

 

These nominees are not merely disruptors, unless you mean disrupting the rule of law, the economy, the healthcare for millions, the constitution, the rights of non-billionaire American citizens and certainly immigrants. And if a traitor is someone who deliberately acts to undermine or destroy our constitution and nation or make us more vulnerable to attack by foreign governments, are they traitors?

 

Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, has had a frightening influence on the new administration so far. During the campaign, Musk said, if given a chance to work for a President DT, he would crash the economy. Nothing about working for the greater good of all. Those who mistakenly link in their minds a DT economy with being “better off” needs to rethink very soon their opinion, memory, and vote.

 

Musk said he plans to use his newly granted power to bring drastic shocks, “hardship” for many Americans to bring long-term prosperity. But to whom? Only his fellow billionaires? He says if he doesn’t do this, the nation will go bankrupt. MSNBC’s Joy Reid responded: There’s no evidence of a looming bankruptcy. And if there was, Musk or DT would be the last people to trust to save it. DT’s tax cuts for the rich, for example, “caused the national deficit to soar.” And his proposed new tax cuts will do the same….

 

*To read the whole post, please go to The Good Men Project.

Writing to Help Us When the World Hurts: To Write Well, Write Truthfully

How do we write well? Probably thousands have written about this. Certainly, writing is about language. It is about metaphor, rhythm, imagination. Experience. It can seem it’s about which words to use, or how to find a unique story or approach. But from my point of view, it really is about understanding the mind and body that writes. No mind, no words. It’s about being truthful and real, or discovering what’s truthful and real for us.

If we fake it, our readers will know it. We will know it. The plot or argument won’t hold together. When it’s truthful to us, it will engage others.

And it will feel “right” inside us. We don’t merely know a truth intellectually—we feel it. A word of beauty is a path for feeling to follow, or it reveals the path feeling took to get to meaning. Without feeling, words are empty code. Dead. When a sentence feels off or incomplete or it’s struggling for breath, it’s wrong, no matter how attractive it looks. We shouldn’t get distracted by good looks. It’s the heart that counts.

And in this frightful time, when fear is being manipulated to drive a wedge between us and others, and with ourselves, our world. Truth is not just buried but twisted by lies. Uncovering what the truth is, and being able to face what we feel, is now an act of defiance and resistance to DT’s march to dictatorship. Looking at ourselves might at times feel too fearsome to attempt, but never has it been more necessary. Our future depends on us finding the right moments to look within and motivate ourselves to join with others to act for the greater good of all.

Feelings arise before words and memories do. They arise with the first hint of awareness. We’ve all probably experienced not knowing what we want to say or write until we say it, or put something down on paper, or in our computer. The act of writing, putting something in front of our eyes, and listening to the words in our mind as we write or say them, can open the conscious mind to the depths normally unconscious. It’s creating and thinking. It’s revelation. What I’m saying is obviously not new. Writing can be an art and an ancient form of therapy.

So, the first step in writing and creating is awakening an awareness of feeling. We all have our own times or ways to feel some clarity, feel a pathway to creativity. Mine involves meditating, exercising and reading, or writing first thing in the morning when my mind is clear. Meditation clears my mind and increases awareness and focus. Exercise energizes me and clears away blocks and obsessions. Walking in natural settings is amazing. And reading nonfiction that interests me can provide a stimulus, imagery, insights, and intellectual challenges. Sometimes, what sparks our creativity is feeling an inner response to what someone else says or has done.

And then, letting go. Free associating. No editing. Just clearly watching what arises and listening to the winds in ourselves and out in the surrounding world and honestly recording whatever we see or hear.

The philosopher, psychologist, and writer Dr. Jean Huston said in a workshop I attended that immersing ourselves in poetry makes beauty more readily available to us. Beauty will then percolate through the unconscious and emerge in one’s speech and writing. The same with reading stories, psychology, philosophy, history and such. Reading reveals doors which meditation unlocks….

 

*To read the whole article, please go to The Good Men Project.

**An earlier form of this article was published by the Swenson Book Development website, and by my website:  https://irarabois.com/write-well-write-truthfully/

When the Whole Universe Feels Like It’s Slipping Away: It Can Take a Long Time for Truths to Reach Us

The election of DT first scared the hell out of me. His inauguration makes this even worse, more real. I feel the world, including the natural world, my life, personal and collective slipping away from my grasp. Becoming a gigantic unknown. And it’s forcing me to re-evaluate so much of what I want, so much of what I’m used to and who I think I am.

 

Throughout human history, people have faced such feelings, that a gigantic change or feared cataclysm⎼ or hopeful revolution⎼ was coming. Bob Dylan sang in the 1960s that “The Times They Are A-Changing.” Religions of different places and times expressed their hopes and directed their fears.

 

In Christianity, for example, there was talk of the “end times,” through different stages including the time of the Anti-Christ, or Satanic man, and finally the New Creation, when Christ remakes heaven and Earth, and ends death, pain, suffering. In Judaism, there’s the prediction of a time of a coming messiah, a liberator who will bring the end of days, the Kingdom of God or an ideal state. Islam speaks of the day of judgement.

 

Times of natural disasters, droughts and fires, floods and hurricanes, created fear and sorrow, a sense that the greater world was turning against us. Wars, rebellions, and injustices, times when leaders spread hate and violence created a sense of our own humanness turning against us. People felt powerless, that their nation, human society was collapsing. Instead of focusing on the light within, people turned to the dark. Instead of looking clearly at the world, the society, or themselves, they searched for someone or something to blame.

 

We know this happens. We turn ordinary humans like ourselves into devils; instead of self-inquiry and studying history, science, thinking critically, we see Satan.

 

In such times, it is never more important for people to do what many of us are trying to do now: to get creative. To look for understanding and ways to join with others, ways of acting.

 

In 1882, philosopher Frederick Nietzsche wrote: “Have you not heard of that madman who lit a lantern and ran to the marketplace, and cried incessantly, “I seek God!” “Whither is God.” He cried out. “We have killed him- you and I.” And later, “Whither are we moving now? …Is there an up or down left? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? …. There has never been a greater deed. And whoever will be born after us… will be part of a higher history than all history hitherto.”

 

Social Media, Information Establishments,But then, Nietzsche’s madman fell silent. No one responded to him. “[T]his event is still on its way… The light of the stars requires time, deeds require time…  before they can be seen or heard.” The events and movements of today share characteristics with the insight and emotion behind the madman’s cries. If we can face our fears and gigantic cultural shifts, a higher history can follow.

 

Almost 100 years after Nietzsche wrote this, in 1966 it became an iconic news headline. An article about it in Time Magazine led to angry pulpit speeches and pinpointed the decreasing influence of established religion in the rapidly changing cultural landscape of the US. It asked us: if we eliminate a central focus for belief and for guiding behavior from the past, from understanding ourselves, whatever that focus is, what will take its place?

 

Charles Kupchan, in a recent article in the Atlantic, wrote, “Trump is Right that Pax Romana is Over’.”…

 

 

*To read the whole post, please go to this link to The Good Men Project.

Fear-Wall Gorge: The Poetry and Joy that Can Arise in Mindful Awareness and Self-Compassion

In 8th century China, the classical Chinese poet Tu Fu, as translated by David Hinton, described his journey down a river through Fear-Wall Gorge. It was a war-ravaged time. At first, I didn’t see or feel the poetry of the poem, the artistry; it seemed simply a list of natural and personal elements. Then I slowed down enough to re-read it a second or third time. And I was there, feeling an old man in a boat, on a river rushing through a gorge.

 

…mossy rock slipping past my unused cane,

kingfisher-green sky empty buffeting skin.

 

Cliffs parade layers of frost-edged sword,

streams cascading pearls of falling water…

 

The scene intense at times, fearful; at others, filled with delight and maybe grief.

“Indifferent to this sparse thing I am, I rest

At ease…” Later, he’s “lit with joy.”

 

I’ve been trying to figure out why this poem stayed in my mind so clearly after reading it, besides literary appreciation. And it must be because, in a sense, we’re all in the boat with Tu Fu. We might not be facing such a bloody and destructive war. But we are, always, hopefully, going on with our lives, facing the familiar and the unknowable, the light and the intense, the beautiful and the fearful, sailing rivers, passing steep cliffs, noticing mossy rocks beyond our unused or used canes, wounds, pains.

 

And maybe we notice the details as clearly as Tu Fu does, feeling them directly. Sensing the shared life, shared feeling, the percipient, knowing, awareness within it all⎼ the silence in the sounds, the unity linking the sights. And the joys possible in such sensing⎼ when we’re quiet enough. We feel nothing is missing because nothing is excluded; all that is possible to touch is touched.

 

Resting at ease⎼ not so easy. Letting my mind flow where it will⎼ not so easy.

 

In a workshop on mindfulness, meditation teacher and author Sharon Salzberg talked about “the golden moment.” This is when we’re practicing meditation, or when we’re working on a task or focusing on an activity, and we drift away and forget what we’re doing; we notice nothing except the words, memories, anxieties or plans in our head.

 

And then, suddenly, we realize what we’re doing. We notice we’ve drifted. We take in what’s not easy for us. What do we do then? If we yell at ourselves, about how bad a meditator or worker we are, we then run off again into thoughts and recriminations. Our mind becomes so small. We become recrimination. Instead, when we do our best, whatever that is for us, to simply notice we’re lost; and we just observe, then we find ourselves anew. Our awareness and mind expand. We take in more.

 

And maybe this is why this poem spoke to me. There it was, so much of life⎼ what feels right, what feels wrong, the joy and fear.

 

How do we get free from the cage of thoughts endlessly recreating themselves in our mind?…

 

 

*To read the whole article, please go to The Good Men Project.

Entering the Darkest Time of Year, and the Yearning for Gifts of Light; Are There Any Gifts We Can Give Each Other to Help Us Survive the Coming Years?

Both politically and seasonally, we’re entering the darkest time of year for those of us in the northern hemisphere and the US. The winter solstice is this week, along with several other seasonal and spiritual holidays. And in the next year, next month, a new political reality arises, filled with so many unknowns and threats, threats that might convince us to physically or emotionally emigrate from the new reality in the US. So, are there any gifts we can give each other to help us survive the coming years? And to find the awareness, the strength to better perceive opportunities for appropriate action and better take care of ourselves and our loved ones?

 

I would like to suggest a different sort of holiday gift, a gift of resources, programs to listen to, books to read, different emotions to share to strengthen ourselves, our friends and others. The first is difficult right now for many of us⎼ gratitude. With so many threats and unknowns staring us in the face, we might ask what do we have to be grateful for?

 

I was driving home earlier in the week listening to Here and Now on NPR, and there was an interview with Monica Bartlett, Professor of Psychology of the Positive Emotion and Social Behavior Lab at Ganzaga University. She spoke about how gratitude can be healing in times when we’re frightened and feel isolated and powerless. We all share a negativity bias. We tend to think first about our safety, more about what might hurt us than what might uplift us. And this negativity just enhances our fear. In contrast, when we feel gratitude, we feel more powerful and capable. And when we care for others, it’s easier to feel cared for.

 

Professor Bartlett suggests practices like pausing near the end of the day and writing down 3 things we’re grateful for, no matter how small, and recognizing who we interacted with or why that event happened. This can include a person we know well, or the person at the supermarket who showed us where to find what we were looking for, or a pet. Their research showed such a simple practice highlights the connections between ourselves and others, the good others bring to our lives, and the power in relationships to better the world.

 

Then there’s compassion⎼ it’s such a powerful source for freeing ourselves of suffering. One day as I was meditating on compassion, by doing a Buddhist practice of taking a moment to stop what I’m doing, sit down in a quiet space, and saying to myself “may I be happy, may X be happy. May I be healthy, may X be healthy. May I be at peace, may X be at peace. May all beings be free of suffering.” And I just felt the breathing, in and out. And suddenly, my problems, worries, and plans stopped repeating themselves in my mind. There was a silence so deep no thoughts appeared, yet nothing was missing.

 

Compassion goes beyond empathy, to not only recognize the suffering of others, or myself, but a readiness to act to reduce that suffering. Meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg points out it’s the opposite of passivity. It readies us to act in recognition of our interdependence, our shared presence in the world, and for the benefit of all. Of doing whatever we feel ready to do, to help a neighbor in need, or to support or start a political action to help millions in need.

 

A third recommendation returns us to the healing power of a pet, or to the bond with or care for another being…

 

*To read the whole post, please go to The Good Men Project.

More Is Being Asked of Us Now Than Possibly Ever Before in Our Lives: We Strive, Not Yet Knowing How, Not Yet Knowing If We’ll Succeed. All We Know is the Need to Act

How do we read the signs that the world and our own hearts and minds are giving us? The universe doesn’t just text us one, clearly typed message, explaining all we’re facing. Would we even welcome such a message? Maybe we do get such messages sometimes and aren’t sure if we’re hallucinating it?

 

I’ve been reading Being-Time: A Practitioner’s Guide to Dogen’s Shobogenzo Uji, by Shinshu Roberts, and just started to alternate it with Seaglass: A Jungian Analyst’s Exploration of Suffering and Individuation, by Gilda Frantz. Dogen is a 13th Century Zen teacher and founder of one of the main schools of Japanese Buddhism. I usually read only 2-4 pages at a time, because each paragraph is like a puzzle requiring considerable reflection. But the beauty that can be discovered in doing so is immense. Frantz’s book was recommended by 2 Facebook friends. It’s been a remarkable find, of essays, personal stories, and interviews about facing the difficult in life and revealing the myths and motivations that drive us.

 

And yesterday, after reading a little in both books, a deep realization, frightening in its scope, grabbed my mind and challenged my emotions. Both books synchronistically seemed to be sending one message, a message of something being asked, no, demanded of me. Something more than I’ve already given, to the world, to myself. It was less a regret for something left undone than a glimpse into an opportunity⎼ if I could take it. Frightening in the risks involved, both in the doing or undoing.

 

There’s a sense of inevitability posed by life in these times, hidden between news reports and the sounds of rain. Between bare tree branches, deep gray clouds, and the feel of tension in my hands and shoulders. Between the ordinary, the known, and the extraordinary and unknown. And a question⎼ We know we must act. But how?

 

More is being asked of all of us than probably ever before in our lives. No matter how much I might want this not to be so, that is the reality. We must let go of so much of what’s normal to our lives so we can do what the times require of us. What our inner selves demand of us.

 

How do  we change our lives internally so we can respond skillfully to the fear DT incites and manipulates in us? To the assault on our values and humanity? How do we respond to his blatant assaults on our security as a people and a nation? To our health care? To our incomes? To threats of deporting immigrants of color, from Latin America? Threats to LGBTQ+? To anyone who opposes him? To the rule of law? How do we respond to the expanding climate and ecological crises?

 

How do I feel less the me isolated from the rest of us, and more of the rest of us in me? Doing so might not only reveal how to help others, and maybe help others realize what they, too, can do, but inspire or expose unseen depths in myself. I want to meditate even more than I do. To learn more than I know. To do more.

 

To help me do this, I plan to read poets and writers from Ukraine, Gaza, Israel, and the US, about how to face the horrors caused by one group of humans against others. Or read writers from the distant past, in ancient China when the social order had collapsed, or even in Ukraine or Eastern Europe, in the villages where my own family might have once lived⎼ so we can feel any horrors of life can be faced, and the strength in ourselves to act can be found….

 

 

*To read the whole article, please click on this link to The Good Men Project.

Looking Within as an Act of Defiance and Sanity: Don’t Make the Mistake of Strengthening Our Opponent Before We Fight Their Actions

Over Thanksgiving, I saw the movie Conclave with close friends. It was a wonderful film. Without giving up too much of the plot to those who haven’t seen it yet, one of my favorite scenes was a pivotal, impromptu speech by the Bishop of Kabul, responding to a previous Bishop who spoke about a supposed threat from Muslims and terrorists to Christianity. The Bishop of Kabul said;

 

What is it you think we’re fighting?

Do you think it’s those deluded men

who had carried out these terrible acts today?

No, my brother.

 

The thing you’re fighting is here…

inside each and every one of us…

 

The idea of the enemy within has a long history, not only in Christianity but Islam, Judaism, etc. It’s often referring, as the Bishop of Kabul did later in his speech, to feeling hate.

 

The phrase has also been used by politicians to serve their purpose of manipulating public opinion and public psychology with fear, anger, as well as hate. Joe McCarthy used the phrase to stir up fear and hatred of Communists, claiming without evidence “Commies” had infiltrated and were taking over our government. DT used the phrase to increase suspicion, fear, and hatred of brown and black immigrants, Democrats, and his other opponents.

 

I’d like to use the term in a slightly different way. I’d use it to describe what the fear of DT, misdirected by DT and others like him, might unleash in us. But ‘enemy’ might distort the issue. The fear is very real, but it can both undermine or enlighten us. When we view the emotion with compassion for all we’re going through, it can get us to look within as an act of defiance and sanity.

 

Most of us realize he threatens literally everything. Certainly, the environmental protections would go, which would not only undermine our health, our clean air and water, but undermine the future of humans and other species on our planet.

 

DT also threatens the rule of law, our right to vote, to speak out, make our own health care decisions, etc. His appointment first of Matt Gaetz and then Pam Bondi for Attorney General illustrates that he has chosen people not for competence or their care for the general welfare of all of us. He’s chosen those he knows will do his bidding, like dismantling the DOJ infrastructure and arresting his opponents. Once laws are made to serve one-man’s interests, the interests of the rest of us are dismissed. No longer could we rely on the law to address injustices of all kinds, including being deported for one’s race or ethnicity, or to address sexist policies, being ripped off financially, dangerous work conditions, etc.

 

Fear and confusion can create hopelessness and withdrawal. I’ve seen it in others and felt it in myself. We might want to turn off the news, or immigrate to another country or to another universe of distractions. And this might be become necessary for us. Some say, “there’s nothing I can do.” Others claim small actions are a waste of time. These responses, while understandable, can cede too much power to the would-be white nationalist dictator.

 

Actions like calling Congress to oppose DT’s cabinet picks or prevent  H.R. 9495⎼ the Stop Terror Financing and Tax Penalties on Hostages Act ⎼which would stop organizations that speak out and oppose him⎼ from passing in the Senate are necessary….

 

 

*To read the whole article, please go to The Good Men Project.

Without Our Listening, Together, Who Will Hear the Rhythm of the Rain?- A Poetic Commiseration and Contemplation

It’s raining. Yet I feel good about it. There’s a restful quality to it, despite the wind and colder temperature. The snow is not yet with us. There’s a steady, moment by moment rhythm. Seemingly repetitive, yet always changing, unpredictable. The wind whips it up and the volume increases; then it slows and quiets so we can barely hear it.

 

Maybe I like it so much because there’s been so little of it lately. It threatened for a few days but hasn’t rained deeply for months. The earth is thirsty for it. People to the east of here, in New Jersey, have experienced its worst drought in 120 years, leading to extremely dangerous wild fires to an extent uncommon to the east coast.

 

Or maybe it’s the knowledge of the inconvenience of going outside, so I might as well stay where I am. Nowhere else I must go.

 

And it’s a gentle rain. But rain can also have the feel of a threat in it. It can mean floods. Loss of life. Water damage. And come with hurricane winds and destruction. It’s often used as a metaphor for feeling depressed, or for tears falling inside us. Or that something wants to be let out, or we want to let it out, or let something go.

 

Or it can be a relief, from drought, clearly. Or we can feel now I can stay home. Now I can give myself a break. Now I can cuddle up with a book or with my wife or friends. The sounds of rain can focus our attention right here, right now, making activities like meditation and contemplation easier. Right here I can find everything.

 

This calm reflective mood is exactly what I need to try to make sense of this frightening historical moment. After the election, I felt it was raining inside me, and the rain threatened to become an overwhelming storm. And now⎼ I want to sit comfortably and let my attention notice what is waiting inside. And if I can, to understand and feel this situation in a larger context.

 

This rain, this moment is the only time we have. It reveals the reality of one aspect of that larger context⎼ the earth around us. Aways here, present, to see, hear, feel. To love. We might want to hold onto the sight or sound of a raindrop or to this moment; or hold onto what we wished was here. But we never hear just one raindrop. It might stand out for a second. But it’s never still. One second, its right there; the next, it disappears into a whole universe of moving drops. When it dissolves, all that’s left is the echo of feeling, the echo of the whole world raining together. So, we let it go.

 

But at least we know ⎼THIS I CAN DO. I can take this breath, notice this thought, listen to the rain this moment. In this listening and feeling, so much more is included than I normally realize….

 

*To read the whole article, please go to The Good Men Project.