This Week As We Vote

This week we go to the polls in the United States to vote. Such a powerful and precious thing. For most of history, human beings have not had a say in how they were governed. And many people fought long and hard to make this possible. That is why the ability to vote is so priceless.

When we look at this election season, it is heartbreaking to see the divisiveness, the vitriol and the ‘against’ kind of energy. Are we going to hell in a hand basket? Is this whole experiment in democracy falling apart?

I would like to look at what is happening from a perspective which sees that, rather than falling apart, we are going through very important growing pains. This perspective understands that humanity matures just like a child does, with an infancy, a childhood, a teenage-hood and then adulthood. It looks like we are now in our teenage years where we are very reactive and passionate about our reactions, without the understanding of a mature mind. (Just watch cable news if you doubt this.)

If some aliens came to the earth and watched how we are with one another right now, they would laugh themselves silly. It would be unbelievable to them that we are so stuck in our positions. They would also be astounded that we value somebody just by the color of their skin. Their skin?!? They would also be stunned to see that all over the world there are hierarchies that deem one person is better than the other because of their gender, their religion, the amount of money they make, whether they are disabled or even their sexual orientation.

Can you see the insanity of this? Other people have become objects in our minds rather than subjects of our hearts! Can you also see that for most of the history of humanity we have lived in the disempowerment of power struggles? Even now China is trying to be the first in artificial intelligence so it can dominate the world, and President Trump is creating a new space force so that the US can be dominant in space.

If we continue on this path of ‘better than’ or ‘less than’ and of pursuing dominance, humanity will not survive. But Isn’t it time we grew up?

In my world, there are more and more people ‘growing up’, waking up out of this illusion of ‘power over’ and realizing that all of us, every single human being, no matter what their skin color, their religion, their politics, their gender or their sexual orientation, has value and matters. For each and every one of us is a necessary thread in the tapestry of life.  They are also understanding that the whole idea of ‘power over,’ whether it’s in our intimate relationships or in the worldwide arms race, will never bring lasting healing.

So, I invite you to vote, for your vote matters. And I invite you to vote for rather than against so that you vote with your aware heart rather than your reactive mind.

I also invite you into a radical shift of perception – to respond rather than react to political beliefs that are different than your own. If you react, you only create more reaction. Rather than positioning against someone, it is deeply healing to understand that all people just want to be heard, and in that listening, reactions calm down.

Suzuki Roshi, the beloved Zen master, shared a metaphor about the power of responding rather than reacting. He said if you put an angry bull in a small enclosure, the bull will get angrier. But if you put the bull in a large pasture, it will calm down. The invitation is to become fascinated about the people you can’t listen to, the bulls that you are putting in a small enclosure through your reactions. This goes all the way from people in your family, to your coworkers and to the people that take different political positions than you do. And then ask life to show you how to put them in the bigger pasture by the phenomenally powerful act of listening.

So I’m inviting you, rather than being caught in the reactions of your mind, to get to know how your mind reacts. Be fascinated so that you can become wiser than your reactions. Moments where you unhook from a reaction are powerful, for you become the place where the healing of our planet is happening.