The Politics of One
All politics aside, I really hate politics. There. I said it. The most political thing I have to say is finally out of the bag, front and center and with little apology.
You see, I don't really know much about politics. I admit it. Pardon my ignorance, but I just can't get worked up about most of it. Maybe that's a good thing. Who knows. I guess I could study it more, educate myself and learn the in's and out's of the political world, then proclaim myself fully able to take on any pundit who even whispers a word that does not coincide with all of my newfound, newfangled knowledge. I could finally, "officially", be allowed to participate in battles along party lines, spouting off jargon that would make any political science professor wet his pants with glee. Taxation. Public vs. private funding. Electoral colleges. Fillibusters. Somebody stop me! Don't look now, but I think I see a puddle forming under Professor Politics.
I could do all of this and more, but I don't. And I'm ok with that. I take one look around me at the people who supposedly know all about this dry, intellectual material and contemplate what they have come up with. What have they been able to accomplish with all of that high-falutin' knowledge of the way things "oughta be"? Hmm. Not much, unless you consider slander, lying and cheating to be actual accomplishments. No, I have chosen a different path. Contrary to what it seems, it is not one of ignorance nor one of burying my head in the sand, but rather it involves my own particular understanding, which for me just seems to work better.
I recall many years ago, after turning 18 and registering to vote for the first time, several people advising me never to vote with my heart. I wonder now, twenty years later, what I am supposed to use to make such decisions then. In most cases, I have found my heart to be at least as smart as my head. If nothing else, it is more open and honest and a little harder to spoon-feed much of the garbage that passes as politics in the present climate. My heart votes for inclusion. It votes for peace. It votes for the idea of oneness. It does not understand hatred, prejudice or false ideologies. None of those things matter to my heart. My heart tells me what to vote for by feeling alone. To hell with logic, polls and campaign promises. I realize this is antithetic to what I was told so many years ago. So what. Whatever anyone else does is for them to decide. But this is my vote, my one vote, and I will choose to let my heart cast it. I trust its own particular form of logic, and why shouldn't I? Believe me, my brain can't do any better. I know this all too well. I have lived with both of these organs all my life, and I have seen their decision making skills at work. Neither is perfect, but my open heart has led me to the promised land with far greater regularity than my overstuffed mind.
Try as I might to convince it otherwise, this old heart of mine just can't understand what politics is all about. It doesn't really want to I guess. It's smarter than that. It sees right through the banter, the posturing, the me-against-you smackdown that characterizes whatever passes for modern politics in America. My heart has no interest in phony promises. It can never quite get a grasp on the labeling that goes on--republican, democrat, libertarian, tomato, tomatoe--because it isn't sure what to make of all the separateness that such monikers create. It only wants us, each and every one of us, to find a common ground. To the heart, this feels like home.
My mind is another story entirely. It hears the empty rhetoric, all the outlandish statements, and wonders what these candidates will come up with next. It wants to judge the holy hell out of everybody. Nothing is sacred. It starts to question whether the world is going to end if this person or that person gets elected President, and more importantly, how all of this will affect me. I get scared. What I am scared of I really have no idea, but I get scared anyway. I begin to fear all the scenarios my mind can create, some of which are downright apocalyptic. Once I have bought into the idea that voting for any one person (or any one belief system) will deliver me, my family, my friends, our country, our world out of the depths of misery and into eternal happiness, I sense that something is amiss. Oddly enough there is isolation in this discovery, a real sense of lack. Everything is not going to be fine, or at least that is what my mind tells me.
Heart vs. Mind. One person. One vote. What to do?
This is when I turn it over to something greater than myself. I may not know much about politics, but I am sure that I don't want to live in fear. That is not what I am here for. Fear is an absolute waste of precious time and energy on this earth plane. Any person that wants me to accept fear in any form it may come in will never get my vote. Every single time a candidate aims to strike fear into his constituents, limiting the world that myself or any of my brothers and sisters live in, I take notice. I don't need to worry if anyone else is taking notice or not. We all have to walk our own paths.
Besides, the political landscape is in a constant state of flux. There are no tried and trues in politics. Just chameleons, shifting colors and shapes to fit what they think the masses want to hear and see. It's a great illusion, really. Trying to hold onto the so-called 'facts' in the political world is a bit like telling a 4-year old not to grow another inch because you like him just the way he is. Like it or not, he won't stay 4 forever, and he certainly won't remain that height. He will grow. He has to. It's the same with what passes for 'facts' not just in politics but also in nearly every other part of life. Most are just opinions disguised as something more tangible. We can hold onto them with every fiber of our being, even scream them at each other until we are blue in the face, but still only one fact actually remains: The only thing that can be counted on is change. It is indeed the one great fact of life.
Where am I going with all of this? I'm not even sure myself. But maybe that is the point. None of us have the answers. I certainly don't. I just don't see the point in arguing any of it anymore, not that I ever did. Nobody can win that game. I'm not even interested in winning. There is no prize in converting someone to believe what I believe, and no real satisfaction either. Even self-righteousness doesn't feel as good as it used to. When Gandhi said, "Be the change you wish to see in the world", I think this is what he meant. I certainly don't want anyone telling me what to believe. Does anyone? I am always trying to remember that my actions speak louder than words. If talk is cheap, then arguing sides is even cheaper. It's like the bargain basement of mouth usage.
Looking over my life, I don't know if words alone have ever swayed my opinion on any subject. More likely, it was my own experiences that did the trick. I got to know myself. I got to know others. When something just didn't feel right to me, I made choices to see things differently, letting go of dogma and judgements along the way, at least as much as I was able to in a given situation. Somehow I realized that my ideas and beliefs were not the same as my parents, my family members, or even any of my friends. They are not required to be. I learned how to see the world through my own eyes, mind and heart, and am in fact still learning. Always will be. This is a lifetime thing after all. But at the very least, I trust in whatever ability I have cultivated to discern the truth from a steaming pile of dung dressed up like the truth. Politically speaking, I may never have all the facts, but in light of how much literal truth those facts seem to contain, I probably don't need them anyway. Too many of these "facts" can be dangerous. If you don't believe me, then take a look at the latest message from anyone running for public office this year. There are danger signs everywhere, as if the people competing for our votes have been replaced by poisonous bottles proudly displaying that skull and crossbones label, warning you to ingest only at your own risk.
This year, I will vote. I'm not sure who I will vote for, but I intend to vote. Instead of listening to speech after speech of empty babbling and malicious attacks, I will look at the track record of each candidate. There comes a time when words just aren't good enough. The only important thing becomes what we are putting out there, how we impact the world at large, and the volition behind everything we do or say. I make every attempt to hold myself responsible for all of my words and deeds. In my eyes, a candidate for political office must (at the very minimum) be held to the same standard. I will try my damndest not to participate in fearful conversations about said elections. That just doesn't feel right anymore. If what I really want is to seek the truth, to get some real idea of what my one vote will get me, then I cannot rely on the television or any other media form to obtain such information. That is all just truth with a spin.
Instead, I will look at my own little world. Examine my surroundings. Try to see everyone and everything through compassionate eyes. I will go by feeling. Nothing that is for the good of everyone can make me or anyone else feel bad, ostracized, disenfranchised, or belittled. Sure, we all see the world differently. This is a fact. No two snowflakes are exactly alike, and no two people are either. All any of us can do is lead by example. I think it is safe to say that in some form or another, every person on the planet wants to live a life of happiness, free of judgement and full of harmony. But in and of themeselves, those are just nice do-gooding phrases. Words and concepts cannot lead us to that freedom on their own. Living does. Experiencing does. Learning does. Letting down our guard and opening to new possibilities does. We can say we want world peace. That's a tall order! But what about our own peace? Now there is something more attainable. In our own lives, we can enjoy the peace that comes not from having to defend this or that, but from simply paying attention to our own inner sense of right and wrong, consciously watching how our decisions affect others, and getting to know ourselves intimately enough to trust whether we are in the presence of truthsayers or monsters. This is the same peace that cannot possibly conceive of a world devoid of integrity and honesty, and yes, it is the very same peace that could really give a hoot less about politics.
OK. My mind wants to interfere with that idealism. Go ahead, mind. Do your thing. Just remember that in the end, you won't have the final say.
You see, I don't really know much about politics. I admit it. Pardon my ignorance, but I just can't get worked up about most of it. Maybe that's a good thing. Who knows. I guess I could study it more, educate myself and learn the in's and out's of the political world, then proclaim myself fully able to take on any pundit who even whispers a word that does not coincide with all of my newfound, newfangled knowledge. I could finally, "officially", be allowed to participate in battles along party lines, spouting off jargon that would make any political science professor wet his pants with glee. Taxation. Public vs. private funding. Electoral colleges. Fillibusters. Somebody stop me! Don't look now, but I think I see a puddle forming under Professor Politics.
I could do all of this and more, but I don't. And I'm ok with that. I take one look around me at the people who supposedly know all about this dry, intellectual material and contemplate what they have come up with. What have they been able to accomplish with all of that high-falutin' knowledge of the way things "oughta be"? Hmm. Not much, unless you consider slander, lying and cheating to be actual accomplishments. No, I have chosen a different path. Contrary to what it seems, it is not one of ignorance nor one of burying my head in the sand, but rather it involves my own particular understanding, which for me just seems to work better.
I recall many years ago, after turning 18 and registering to vote for the first time, several people advising me never to vote with my heart. I wonder now, twenty years later, what I am supposed to use to make such decisions then. In most cases, I have found my heart to be at least as smart as my head. If nothing else, it is more open and honest and a little harder to spoon-feed much of the garbage that passes as politics in the present climate. My heart votes for inclusion. It votes for peace. It votes for the idea of oneness. It does not understand hatred, prejudice or false ideologies. None of those things matter to my heart. My heart tells me what to vote for by feeling alone. To hell with logic, polls and campaign promises. I realize this is antithetic to what I was told so many years ago. So what. Whatever anyone else does is for them to decide. But this is my vote, my one vote, and I will choose to let my heart cast it. I trust its own particular form of logic, and why shouldn't I? Believe me, my brain can't do any better. I know this all too well. I have lived with both of these organs all my life, and I have seen their decision making skills at work. Neither is perfect, but my open heart has led me to the promised land with far greater regularity than my overstuffed mind.
Try as I might to convince it otherwise, this old heart of mine just can't understand what politics is all about. It doesn't really want to I guess. It's smarter than that. It sees right through the banter, the posturing, the me-against-you smackdown that characterizes whatever passes for modern politics in America. My heart has no interest in phony promises. It can never quite get a grasp on the labeling that goes on--republican, democrat, libertarian, tomato, tomatoe--because it isn't sure what to make of all the separateness that such monikers create. It only wants us, each and every one of us, to find a common ground. To the heart, this feels like home.
My mind is another story entirely. It hears the empty rhetoric, all the outlandish statements, and wonders what these candidates will come up with next. It wants to judge the holy hell out of everybody. Nothing is sacred. It starts to question whether the world is going to end if this person or that person gets elected President, and more importantly, how all of this will affect me. I get scared. What I am scared of I really have no idea, but I get scared anyway. I begin to fear all the scenarios my mind can create, some of which are downright apocalyptic. Once I have bought into the idea that voting for any one person (or any one belief system) will deliver me, my family, my friends, our country, our world out of the depths of misery and into eternal happiness, I sense that something is amiss. Oddly enough there is isolation in this discovery, a real sense of lack. Everything is not going to be fine, or at least that is what my mind tells me.
Heart vs. Mind. One person. One vote. What to do?
This is when I turn it over to something greater than myself. I may not know much about politics, but I am sure that I don't want to live in fear. That is not what I am here for. Fear is an absolute waste of precious time and energy on this earth plane. Any person that wants me to accept fear in any form it may come in will never get my vote. Every single time a candidate aims to strike fear into his constituents, limiting the world that myself or any of my brothers and sisters live in, I take notice. I don't need to worry if anyone else is taking notice or not. We all have to walk our own paths.
Besides, the political landscape is in a constant state of flux. There are no tried and trues in politics. Just chameleons, shifting colors and shapes to fit what they think the masses want to hear and see. It's a great illusion, really. Trying to hold onto the so-called 'facts' in the political world is a bit like telling a 4-year old not to grow another inch because you like him just the way he is. Like it or not, he won't stay 4 forever, and he certainly won't remain that height. He will grow. He has to. It's the same with what passes for 'facts' not just in politics but also in nearly every other part of life. Most are just opinions disguised as something more tangible. We can hold onto them with every fiber of our being, even scream them at each other until we are blue in the face, but still only one fact actually remains: The only thing that can be counted on is change. It is indeed the one great fact of life.
Where am I going with all of this? I'm not even sure myself. But maybe that is the point. None of us have the answers. I certainly don't. I just don't see the point in arguing any of it anymore, not that I ever did. Nobody can win that game. I'm not even interested in winning. There is no prize in converting someone to believe what I believe, and no real satisfaction either. Even self-righteousness doesn't feel as good as it used to. When Gandhi said, "Be the change you wish to see in the world", I think this is what he meant. I certainly don't want anyone telling me what to believe. Does anyone? I am always trying to remember that my actions speak louder than words. If talk is cheap, then arguing sides is even cheaper. It's like the bargain basement of mouth usage.
Looking over my life, I don't know if words alone have ever swayed my opinion on any subject. More likely, it was my own experiences that did the trick. I got to know myself. I got to know others. When something just didn't feel right to me, I made choices to see things differently, letting go of dogma and judgements along the way, at least as much as I was able to in a given situation. Somehow I realized that my ideas and beliefs were not the same as my parents, my family members, or even any of my friends. They are not required to be. I learned how to see the world through my own eyes, mind and heart, and am in fact still learning. Always will be. This is a lifetime thing after all. But at the very least, I trust in whatever ability I have cultivated to discern the truth from a steaming pile of dung dressed up like the truth. Politically speaking, I may never have all the facts, but in light of how much literal truth those facts seem to contain, I probably don't need them anyway. Too many of these "facts" can be dangerous. If you don't believe me, then take a look at the latest message from anyone running for public office this year. There are danger signs everywhere, as if the people competing for our votes have been replaced by poisonous bottles proudly displaying that skull and crossbones label, warning you to ingest only at your own risk.
This year, I will vote. I'm not sure who I will vote for, but I intend to vote. Instead of listening to speech after speech of empty babbling and malicious attacks, I will look at the track record of each candidate. There comes a time when words just aren't good enough. The only important thing becomes what we are putting out there, how we impact the world at large, and the volition behind everything we do or say. I make every attempt to hold myself responsible for all of my words and deeds. In my eyes, a candidate for political office must (at the very minimum) be held to the same standard. I will try my damndest not to participate in fearful conversations about said elections. That just doesn't feel right anymore. If what I really want is to seek the truth, to get some real idea of what my one vote will get me, then I cannot rely on the television or any other media form to obtain such information. That is all just truth with a spin.
Instead, I will look at my own little world. Examine my surroundings. Try to see everyone and everything through compassionate eyes. I will go by feeling. Nothing that is for the good of everyone can make me or anyone else feel bad, ostracized, disenfranchised, or belittled. Sure, we all see the world differently. This is a fact. No two snowflakes are exactly alike, and no two people are either. All any of us can do is lead by example. I think it is safe to say that in some form or another, every person on the planet wants to live a life of happiness, free of judgement and full of harmony. But in and of themeselves, those are just nice do-gooding phrases. Words and concepts cannot lead us to that freedom on their own. Living does. Experiencing does. Learning does. Letting down our guard and opening to new possibilities does. We can say we want world peace. That's a tall order! But what about our own peace? Now there is something more attainable. In our own lives, we can enjoy the peace that comes not from having to defend this or that, but from simply paying attention to our own inner sense of right and wrong, consciously watching how our decisions affect others, and getting to know ourselves intimately enough to trust whether we are in the presence of truthsayers or monsters. This is the same peace that cannot possibly conceive of a world devoid of integrity and honesty, and yes, it is the very same peace that could really give a hoot less about politics.
OK. My mind wants to interfere with that idealism. Go ahead, mind. Do your thing. Just remember that in the end, you won't have the final say.
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