There are needed truths and deep wisdom in the voice and vision held here by Kent Nerburn. Deepest gratitude for Kent and for all those who remind us of what truly matters. May we listen and choose wisely and consciously who we are and what it is that we can bring to ourselves, each other, and our world. We all have roles to play in creating the caring, just, compassionate, and peaceful world that in our hearts and souls we humans all so deeply yearn for. ― Molly
A Coalition Of the Caring
Is What We Need
We need to get over the shock and move past the haunting question of "Who are those people?" There are those among us who will parse this issue and eventually come up with a cogent answer. But the question for most of us must become, and quickly, "Who are we?"
To look at this we must ask another, more basic question: "What is it we have lost?" Because it is by knowing what we have lost that we know what it is we hold most dear.
Be aware that in our outrage and amazement at Trump and the MAGA people, we have allowed ourselves to be turned into the mirror image of who they are. We are now creatures of outrage and dark presentiments, just as they are. We must correct this, and correcting it cannot be by becoming either Pollyannas or ostriches.
I would like to propose that what I am mourning, and have been mourning ever since Trump came on the scene and took over my brain and our public discourse, is the loss of civility and compassion.
There is much to say about this and many ways to analyze it. But I truly believe that we must be aware of how we as a culture have fallen in with a bad crowd, and the only way to heal ourselves is to move away from it completely.
A coalition of the caring is what we need. A return to measured discourse and civility. This is not easily done. The bile rises quickly in the throat when Trump and his minions, and, soon enough, his policies are thrown in our faces. Yes, we must resist, but resist not by exerting an equal force, but by manifesting what we believe.
Something I learned from a Lakota friend that I have tried to practice and pass on to my children and my grandchildren is to always try to be the person you want yourself to be.
Remember, the people who voted for Trump did so because they are deeply unhappy. The victory of a sociopathic carnival barker is not going to make them happy, not in the long run. We need to manifest a clarity of purpose and a civility of manner about who we are and what we believe so that they can expel the poison from their systems and move back to being the good friends and caring neighbors that we know them to be, and, more importantly, that they know themselves to be and desperately want to be.
But to do that we need to expel the poison from our systems. The time to start is now.
― Kent Nerburn
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