On keeping our heads, and hearts, this election season
I received the following from a new reader, Andrea Pflaumer. She offered that I could publish it here for Mudita Journal readers, and I’m delighted to take her up on the offer.
For the next two months we can expect the airwaves and blogosphere to heat up with negative rhetoric on both sides about the candidates. That is, unfortunately, the way things are in the world of politics today.
But I want to focus on something much bigger. If we all just step away from the drama for a minute I think there’s an awful lot that we can feel just plain wonderful about.
We have just nominated the first person of color - an African-American - to the presidency of the most powerful country in the world. We’ve also nominated a guy who endured - without buckling - several years of torture in a foreign prison camp, making him more qualified to discuss the evils of torture than anyone I can think of.
Also, today John McCain announced Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska, as his running mate for the 2008 presidential election. Sarah Palin and her husband, an Inuit Indian, have five children including one that has Down Syndrome.
I mention Palin’s child because my oldest friend Adrienne - who is three days younger than I - just sent me an email letting me know that her first grandchild was born two months ago with Down Syndrome.
The most heartening part of this story is that Adrienne’s beautiful daughter is a special education teacher and has already designed a plan for the child’s education. Adrienne concluded the e-mail by saying that they adore their new grandson and are enjoying watching him grow.
Before we go any further let me just say that this is not going to be a discussion about the merits or problems of legal abortion. That issue is not one for which I am qualified to argue or even discuss. I grew up in the 1960s and have known many women for whom abortion has played a significant part in their lives; some have felt it was for the better and some rue the decision to abort a child to this day.
The reason I bring this up is very personal: I am thrilled that Adrienne and her daughter now have a role model in a prominent position living with similar emotional challenges as is their own family. This is also why so many people are thrilled with Barack Obama: to be mirrored in a culture that has for so long made invisible everyone but those people whom advertisers deem as worthy of emulating is a significant step in our country’s evolution. And that’s something we can all celebrate.
My late beloved guru, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, used to say that the leaders of a country are simply the reflection of the collective consciousness of that country. The selection of our current candidates indicate to me that we are a big, generous and wonderful society that now values human beings for more than simply the words and positions for which they stand. I hope that this year people make their political decisions based on their own beliefs and not on hostility or hatred for the opposite candidate.
I would love to see the rhetoric elevated to a higher level and policy positions discussed in great detail and depth. I would love to see the American public treated as though we have some intelligence and are not swayed by fear and envy - two emotions that are only crippling to life and growth.
And then no matter what happens, I would hope - as I have said before - that people would get on with their lives, find their own happiness and fulfillment, and stop looking for the solution to all their problems from their political leaders, who are after all just human beings like the rest of us, living out the play and display of karma.
Andrea keeps a blog at MySpace, where I also enjoyed her gentle-spirited post “Lili Fujikawa and the Perfect Apple Pie.”
Thank you, Andrea.
Originally published at Mudita Journal. Please leave any comments there.