Creation: Minding The Ripples

By Judith Gayle | Political Waves

It’s interesting how the tides of time and experience roll in and out, keeping the astrologically literate on alert no matter what’s going on in the world. Others, not so attuned to cycles, don’t pay nearly enough attention to how events on the ground are shaped, not just by circumstance but by the attitudes that make them possible. Then when our challenges come home to roost, we often feel that they have appeared out of nowhere, and — especially if they are political — beyond our ability to influence.

Motivational speaker Nido Qubein offers us a more realistic outlook when he tells us, “Your present circumstances don’t determine where you can go; they merely determine where you start.” And while that is helpful advice to change the energy around our perception of being stuck or helpless, I think perhaps Qubein doesn’t go far enough. In the study of metaphysics, we learn that we live in a world of cause and effect, with cause most often first appearing in our mind as an idea, eventually becoming an act of creation that — joined with others of like mind — creates a ripple in the material world.

A Course In Miracles points out that we have no neutral thoughts, a reminder that our thought system is cause for the creation of all we see around us, with predictable result. I appreciate this explanation, from the Workbook For Students: “Everything you see is the result of your thoughts. There is no exception to this fact. Thoughts are not big or little; powerful or weak. They are merely true or false. Those that are true create their own likeness. Those that are false make theirs.”

In a polarized world, entrenched in a thought system that does not encourage us to acknowledge our own bias or agenda, the search for truth is so little appreciated that it’s predictable that we seldom recognize it when we see it. Gratefully, we continue to get opportunities.

For instance, this is the week that found a tennis champ retiring because she could no longer take the physical stressors of professional competition, pointing out the incredible personal sacrifice required in our sports culture. I was particularly pleased at her candor, given the hypocritical response to Alex Rodriguez’ use of performance enhancing drugs.

Every decision, every action taken by a sports figure has consequences, both professionally and personally, but here on the sidelines, the public is more likely to be rooting for a favorite — a romanticized figure, part movie star, part super hero — rather than caring about the risks athletes take to compete for, and win, adulation and outlandish pay. Dangerous drugging? Who cares so long as everyone does it? Wrong message to our children? Who cares, so long as the performance is awesome?

Case in point? As football season nears, how many of us are concerned about making changes to NFL rules due to the high probability of eventual brain damage in players? If this is true — and the statistics on this issue speak for themselves — do we dog sportscasters to speak out against abuse and advocate for safety? Do we demand similar activism from the boosters of Pop Warner kids’ teams or from local newsies who cover hometown high school games? Do we expect Rachel Ray to take a stand for reforms while giving us the latest tips on tasty halftime recipes? Do we expect those we know to at least look at the facts? If not, why not?

Events that spark off recognition of an earlier cause, just about everything by the way, need our attention. We cannot get hold of our decision-making until we plainly see the resulting effect of our thought system. This will tell us a lot about ourselves and, frankly, that’s important because it isn’t THEM — whomever we believe we’re pitted against — that needs changing, it’s US: the collective US. That requires a shifting of consciousness, and while those changes will happen in the heart, they begin in the mind.

Granted, few of us can be blamed for feeling overwhelmed by too much information, too much confusion, not just about how to manage our own thoughts but how to get a sense of what’s true in a culture that has accepted ‘truthiness’ as an equivalent to factual truth for a decade and more. And I know you’ll find it hard to believe, but thanks to the resistance of those who refuse to step away from their absolutes, that whole process has gotten worse.

Examples? Paul Krugman writes this week on “the madness of the GOP,” which he calls “the central issue of our time.” He cites an attempt by Marco Rubio to redefine the refusal of the House to pass through a budget if Obamacare remains funded by shifting responsibility to a stubborn president. It is not, said Rubio, about Pubs threatening a general shutdown unless health care reform is defunded, it’s about Obama threatening to shut down the government by insisting that the law be implemented.

Krugman likens this rationale to a similar argument that Abraham Lincoln responded to in his Cooper Union address of 1860, in which he said, “A highwayman holds a pistol to my ear, and mutters through his teeth, ‘Stand and deliver, or I shall kill you, and then you will be a murderer!’ ”

Want another? Because the American Legislative Exchange Counsel was largely responsible for the passage of stand-your-ground laws around the nation, Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin — poised on convening a subcommittee hearing to study these laws now that the Zimmerman verdict is in — sent a letter of inquiry to about 300 current and former ALEC members, asking if they were still ALEC supporters and/or if they continued to back these laws in light of the Florida verdict.

While that might sound like a reasonable enough request to you and me, it was NOT, according to ALEC representatives. No, it was sheer political intimidation from the majority party. Their refusal to respond was delivered in a statement to Durbin and to the public at large, then followed with a letter defending the group’s right to assemble (never at question,) signed by some 300 highly miffed lawmakers, including several from Missouri. Evidently, sampling the opinion of hundreds of corporate ALEC members is a form of personal intrusion and political threat, and that’s because while the group touts itself a nonprofit group, it functions as a corporate lobbyist in secret and in the shadows.

I mention Missouri because my fellow citizens seem unable to avoid embarrassing themselves nationally, more’s the pity. First, let me say that this state never could get its ducks in a row regarding which side of the Civil War it wanted to fight for, so it fought for both and it would seem evident that we’re still making up our mind.

This week, just prior to the bull riding on rodeo night at the Missouri State Fair, a clown wearing a campy Obama mask came into the ring of the publicly-funded, “family friendly” event, prompting the announcer to ask if anyone would like to see Obama run down by a bull. According to observers, “The crowd went wild. He asked it again and again, louder each time, whipping the audience into a lather. One of the clowns ran up and started bobbling the lips on the mask and the people went crazy.”

Fallout began almost immediately among those who find this kind of ‘entertainment’ both polarizing and disrespectful, if not overtly racist. It should be noted that some of the commentary blasted through the loudspeaker was impolitic and derisive, predictably right-wing. This resulted in a bipartisan outcry from Missouri politicians, with even some conservatives plainly horrified to find their homegrown bias subject to national scrutiny.

There was a good bit of knee-jerk in the response of those who found themselves in the cross hairs of public opinion, distancing as best they could. The announcer — also president of the Missouri Rodeo Cowboy Association and superintendent of a local school district — resigned from the group, insisting the clown, who he said was responsible for the more egregious commentary, be fired.

The clown later apologized and was banned from his profession (in this state) for life, but no worries; he and his fellow clowns have been invited to perform at the Texas State Fair. The Texas Representative issuing the invitation had this to say: “Liberals have targeted this man for personal destruction to create a climate of fear.”

Quick to try for a civilized response, the Missouri State Fair Commission has now required all rodeo workers to attend sensitivity training which caused our own native-born Rush Limbaugh to call them “gutless, cover-your-ass wonders” that are requiring rodeo workers to attend liberal “re-education camps.” Like I said, our embarrassments seem endless.

Meanwhile, our Dem Senator, Claire McCaskill, released a statement calling the event “shameful” and “unacceptable,” and added, “The young Missourians who witnessed this stunt learned exactly the wrong lesson about political discourse – that somehow it’s ever acceptable to, in a public event, disrespect, taunt, and joke about harming the President of our great nation. Missouri is better than this and I expect someone to be held accountable.”

Now, why did I regale you with this silly story? Because the rodeo happened on a Saturday night and I spent the day at the fair on Tuesday, handing out Dem information and talking to passers-by. The topic of the rodeo clown was on everyone’s mind. The handful of volunteers who manned the booth had instruction to refer questions and comments about the issue to the Dem’s state organization, but that was hardly a workable suggestion given the insistence of those stopping by to chat.

While the majority felt sure that this event had been prompted by racism and never should have happened, a small minority agreed but thought all was fair in love and rodeo politics. Still, the extremism of the right-wing — virtually the majority here in MO — along with our national black eye, had everyone glum. I spent my afternoon encouraging lefties to keep heart while stumping for local activism against an onslaught of disturbing right-wing legislation we progressives are attempting to slow. And then something happened that brought McCaskill’s words home, as well as a clear call for responsible creation.

A young man, sixteen or so, broke off from a group of loitering teens and came up to the booth. He had a hint of swagger about him — several girls were watching — but that and a dollar might get a cup of typical teen spirit, doncha know. He began a conversation with one of our more vocal volunteers, almost immediately goading him about Obama and the rodeo clown. The youngster’s argument, which I didn’t follow very carefully, was pointless, but he quickly got under the skin of the volunteer and glanced back at his waiting friends with obvious satisfaction. He looked positively triumphant when the volunteer used an expletive in response to his silly talking points.

“Are you cursing me?” he accused, pleased as punch. “Are you threatening me?” He was loud enough to cause heads to turn, dramatic enough to make people wonder what was happening and cause my friend an even more defensive response. Looking back at the boy’s pack of friends, I could see one girl in particular who was enthralled by his performance, no doubt the one it was calculated to impress. That was checkmate, the kid won the skirmish. He left quickly after that.

What was true was that the kid had an agenda that wasn’t political, but politics was what worked for him to achieve his goal. The volunteer was defensive from a day of ain’t-it-awfuls and why-can’t-we-stop-thems, and his weariness showed. Those who stopped to watch might have seen a real teaching moment if the volunteer had kept his wits about him, but he didn’t. The stilted virtues of the young man’s argument might have surfaced clearly if the volunteer had, rather than challenging him, asked if he thought it was all right to disrespect the POTUS — ANY POTUS, not just this one.

He might have asked if the boy knew who represented him locally, what he felt was important to the nation and what he felt his own role in that might be. He might have turned the event from one that rippled out anger and defensiveness, that put a teen’s ego-self in charge of the moment, that created a spirit of war rather than peace, but he didn’t. Instead, he lowered his own common denominator to meet the kid at his lowest level, rather than raising him to a higher one. And here, in my opinion, is where passion comes in a distant second to compassion.

That’s how creation works: by magnetizing to us energies similar to our own, and yet, each of us has a “menu” of responses within that range of emotion and understanding. Choosing a higher path, rather than defaulting to a lower, will always change the ripples we send out to create our tomorrows.

Each of us is doing just that, hundreds of times a day. Each of us is making a choice in terms of what we create by those things we think, by our response, by our intent and — again — those thoughts that are true create their own likeness; those that are false make theirs, as well. Over time it becomes easier, in fact effortless, to tell the difference.

I know there are bigger political fish to fry this week — Syria, Egypt, the NSA — but in light of the larger transits that mark this period, magnifying our restlessness and sense of rebellion against all that seems so unworkable in the world, I wanted to remind us all of the concepts that give us dominion over our own choices.

Few of us are in a straightjacket, unable to do anything about the challenges we face but even if we were, we would still have clear choice about our thought process, about the dynamics of our response and therefore the ability to influence the magnet that will bring opportunity and assistance into our situation. Deliberately and mindfully, we can establish a higher cause in order to experience a more productive effect. That’s how we will create the ripples that will lift the world into the new era of activity and understanding, of loving and nurturing and teaching. Bit by bit, everything will change as WE do.