By Judith Gayle | Political Waves
If we have no peace, it’s because we have forgotten that we belong to one another. ~ Mother Theresa
I’m sure you’ll understand if I tell you that I’m hard pressed to make sense of the week, even from a political point of view. I suspect you’re having the same problem. Sometimes — a mere handful of times in our personal lives, hopefully — everything seems to stop, the routine shaken and the events of the day suddenly unimportant. It happens with the shock of tragedy: death, divorce, dire illness, unexpected job loss or displacement. And when it happens, there are few words that can comfort. If we are fortunate, there are friends and family members who will step up to simply stand with us, offering support until we can find our sea legs, and even after as we learn to make peace with unwanted change.
This has been a period of history in which that kind of shock has turned mundane — even expected — thanks to growing income inequality and predatory fiscal opportunism, thanks to the loss of oversight and civil liberties and public policy designed to benefit the average citizen. Hopes to remedy these inequities have produced only a loud, sucking sound from the halls of Congress, where any attempt to work for the public good has swirled down the drain for years. The current Congress has never before done so little while spending so much on unsupportable junk legislation like the 50-odd attempts to repeal Affordable Care, Darrell Issa’s glut of subpoenaed witch hunts, and now House Speaker John Boehner’s bogus lawsuit against Obama, all added to the taxpayers’ tab. Back in Dubya’s day, when congressional approval numbers hit the teens, there was a collective gasp. There is only a sullen silence now that current approval stands at 7 percent.
We’ve spent several decades unraveling the spiritual and ethical center of this nation, with the public slowly becoming inured to news of unprovoked wars, the unimagined loss of pensions and retirement funds, chronic un- and under-employment and foreclosures. We’ve learned to shrug at stories of reduced safety nets, increases in police brutality, consumer fraud and enforced austerity. Only slightly different than personal loss, these public losses are shocks that spin us into limbo, frozen in pain and helplessness, and they’ve increased in frequency until they’ve become a bona fide zeitgeist, an overwhelming volume of white noise that stalks our daily lives like a specter of unwelcome possibilities. With gun rights seemingly more important than victims’ rights and corporate personhood more protected and entitled than our own, life seems less safe here at home, and even worse out there in the larger world. It is much to bear.
The commercial plane shot down over Ukraine this week is a shocking development, a rip in the Force taking with it the lives of innocents, a hundred of them specialists in combating and researching AIDS around the world. There is much finger-pointing and denial going on, the details of who did what still in the hopper. Such agony cannot remain a cerebral process for most of us. I can only look at these headlines and wonder what I’d do if someone I loved was on that flight. I can only begin to imagine the number of people who are going to be affected by either the personal loss, or the exquisitely tragic professional loss, of those whose last flight crossed into the airspace above Ukraine. And for what? Can anybody tell us?
Still, there remains the possibility that something good might come from such tragedy. Said James F. Collins, a former US ambassador to Russia who now works at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, of the plane’s downing, “It’s one of those events . . . that can have unpredicted negative or positive consequences.” The Washington Post article continues:
On the negative side, it marks a clear escalation of both firepower and the willingness to use it that could draw the patrons of both sides into more overt participation on the ground and more direct confrontation with each other. […]
Former secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton said in an interview with Charlie Rose that “if there is clear evidence linking Russia . . . that should inspire the Europeans to do much more” to punish Russia and assist the Ukrainian government.
But Collins and others suggested that the shocking nature of the incident could also be a wake-up call to all involved. “It may bring certain people to decide that some different approach is needed because this is really getting out of hand,” Collins said. “All of a sudden, it could mean a lot more people talking about [the Ukraine situation] and saying enough is enough.””
On another front, after a week’s escalation Israel has not only entered Gaza with 30,000 troops, but plans to “significantly widen” its ground offensive. Thus far, the death toll stands at 268 Palestinians, while Israel lost a soldier in its initial push into the territory. The Pope has spoken to both Israeli President Shimon Peres and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of the West Bank expressing his “grave concerns” about the bloodshed, to little avail. Said Peres, deftly passing the buck, “A small group of fanatics are the cause of suffering in Gaza. Israel is doing everything to lower the flames and minimize civilian casualties.”
While I have a hard time imagining that this might be read by some wandering Tea Party acolyte, I offer a mea culpa in advance if this next comment offends, but isn’t this attack on all of Palestine in search of insurgents ethically similar to something like the United States government taking out most of the Red states in an effort to kill off rhetoric-bomb throwing radicals? For instance, painfully aware that I’m outnumbered here in the Pea Patch, I would be subject to becoming collateral damage. How do you separate the terrorists from the terrorized? Or perhaps, given the deeply engrained racism (think nits, lice, as explained last week) involved, collateral damage is something of a perk to the hardened Israelis.
I don’t want to be cavalier about the threat to Israel, with Hamas an unyielding enemy. But their defense system is first-class and the rockets launched at them more annoyance than danger. More threat is posed by suicide bombers than rocket attack. Meanwhile, those in the know report that this renewed offensive in the territories has been referred to as “cutting the lawn,” a routine action to reduce the build-up of ordnance Hamas has at its disposal. If civilians reap the sorrow, that’s nothing new, of course, not even to Hamas, which remains defiant. There IS no fix for the game of attack/defend played by these two old enemies, none but a renewal of consciousness.
And that’s the potential we’re cultivating, here at the beginning of a new Era. This potent astrology of ours is the shorthand revealing a push from the universe that not only reveals truth but shakes up complacency and defeatism. Those of us looking for larger purpose — like creating a nation devoutly true to the preamble of the Constitution and Bill of Rights, like lifting consciousness above the anachronistic tribalism and narcissism that have taken the whole of the world on an unexpected adventure down the rabbit hole — can find it by taking advantage of any circumstance we’ve drawn to ourselves. It is not easy to tame the heart on this front, but it can be done. Even the agony of loss has a flip side: release.
We are sorting out the dark places in our cultures, our politics, our religious understanding, so we can learn to recognize what no longer serves humankind’s growth and progress. We are getting a clearer picture of the “so within, so without,” which is why the stars do not compel us from outside of our own will, but impel and encourage us to take advantage of the opportunity to learn from our experience and take responsibility for ourselves and our actions, both the errors of the past and the intent of the future.
We must stop demonizing one another, or live with demons. We must stop thinking we can kill ideas, or find our loved ones killed. We must stop and think! Like it or not, if we are to heal what divides us, we must begin a dialogue with one another. We must remember we are all part of the same human family.
Examples of our disrespect for opinions other than our own can be found everywhere. Read any political blog and you will find vicious response, personal attacks on the intelligence of bloggers, some of it disturbing and almost all of it anonymous. I don’t know if actually having such a conversation face to face would change that; once it would have. Today? That remains at question. And you only need to read news to get a sense of the vitriolic going on between the political parties, an energy of impasse that’s been growing for years.
It wasn’t always this mean-spirited, but you can’t prove that to kids or teens that were raised on news from the likes of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, or even to young adults who remember Clinton being impeached for his blow job or Newt Gingrich closing down the entire nation in a snit over a perceived slight. And believe it or not, this change toward incivility accompanied the rise of religious radicalization, its politicized jihad against secularism issued by Jerry Falwell and his Moral Majority.
This carefully crafted divide between us discounts our commonalities in favor of our differences, attempts a win-at-any-cost mentality and stands in the way of our dreams for a healed planet and peaceful, prosperous and ethical 21st century. And escalated, our current energy of revolution cuts with a two-edged sword; it can help, it can hinder, but it will not leave us in the place where it found us.
Some of us may consider it easier to burn down the house than remodel it, although those of us who have spent a good many years observing the flow of life here on planet Terra might argue that that is easier said than done. And truly, if we don’t get ANY of this right, we might find ourselves a Road Warrior or inhabitant of Waterworld long into the future, but right this minute it’s in our hands to make that projection, not just improbable but unnecessary to our evolution. As Lawrence of Arabia put it, “Nothing is written.” We are the writers of our own destiny, our own future, perhaps even the authors of the remarkable potential into which we incarnate.
But in order to build together, we must first stop shouting at one another, and that begins, for each of us, in our personal lives. Personal relationships aside — where, hopefully, we’re nurturing and respecting one another as a matter of course — we might assume a bit of tenderness, which is a function of compassion, when we deal with those who annoy us the most, those that confound us or seem to threaten. Lost in antiquity is the originator of the phrase, “Be kind. Everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle,” but whoever said it knew a little something about human experience. We make those people who rub us the wrong way one-dimensional cartoon characters of ‘the enemy’ at our own peril. They remain enigmatic to us when we take that lazy way out, unaware that they are often holding their own tragedy close to the chest, defensive in the name of self-protection. And, metaphysically speaking, they are almost always mirroring something within ourselves, something we’ve judged harshly against, that we are rejecting. When we deny them tenderness, we deny it to ourselves.
I am much in the mood for tenderness lately. I’ve been to two funerals in the last month. My household started the morning with news that a close friend’s ex-wife — a woman of only 35 or so, mother of his two children — had hung herself. In tears, our friend said he didn’t know how to tell his 14-year-old daughter, and even worse, her 16-year-old brother found her. There are no words to offer at such news.
Last week, my dear Fishin’ Jim had to put down his beloved companion and long-time sidekick, Oscar the dog, suffering from a kind of dysplasia, after having nursed him along for more than a year. Memorable as something of a canine diplomat, Oscar was patient with children and respectful of adults and other animals. As many people knew Oscar as know Jim, and he was often asked after when he could no longer tag along. Now they must be told not to ask anymore, and my heart aches.
I’m reminded daily that life is hard, and I suspect you are as well. But closing our hearts against it is even harder. We must, as a species, stop denying one another respect, safety, peace. We must begin to understand that most of the bad behavior we witness begins with pain and ends with it, unrecognized.
I mentioned in blog comments a few weeks past about my friend and fellow Democratic PAC member, Father Paul, a monk who was pen pal with a man on Death Row, here in Missouri. The man, John Middleton, was put to death this week, after a series of stays and appeals that ended when the Supreme Court refused the case. Paul was witness to his death, having walked through these last days with him, as best he could considering what is allowed in the penal system. I know he offered John his friendship, his support and his tenderness. I know it cost him emotionally and I know it only strengthened his determination to fight against the death penalty. Paul walked the talk. He’s a hero.
All of us have the capacity to be a hero, walking our talk, extending our compassion and tenderness in those situations — and they are legion — where we intuit need. There are no answers to the questions sought in our political wrangles unless there is a love of the common good and the well-being of our brothers and sisters written in the solution. Our collective pain is on the table, our frightening disconnect with heart is evident but our future is not chiseled in stone unless we throw up our hands in defeat. There is forgiveness and collaboration and respect available to us whenever we choose it. There is cooperation to change things for the better available to replace the dark punishing aspects of our psyche when that becomes the actual desire of our heart, and we have already reached that tipping point, the public making its desire known despite the tone-deaf beat of the political drums.
It falls to us to no longer be complicit in unkindness, nor support or approve such behavior or find justification for violence against the human spirit. All of the ongoing sorrows we’ve reviewed this week can either sink us deeper into the mire or lift us into a new understanding of what is to be done to rescue one another. The answer to all the pain that surrounds us is tenderness, an open heart and acceptance of what is, in order to accurately assess what can be. We have it within our power to change it all. Remember, nothing is written until we write it.
Here’s your evolution ‘toon for the day.
I stopped listening to pundit television this morning because nobody had anything relevant to say, with all that’s going on, nobody seems to have a clue, even the folks who are hired to pretend to know. Confusion abounds!
I was sad to see that the rise of anti-Semitism in France has lit a match under the racism rhetoric and, following false claims that synagogues in Paris had been targeted by pro-Palestinian demonstrators, the main peace demonstration this weekend was cancelled by the government. Accusations of fascism are being directed at France for taking this step, which seems to me the opening shot of the Jupiter in Leo signature energy.
There’s no doubt that government — none in particular, just gov et al — is terrified of this kind of thing, people in the streets. Look closely and you can see that’s part of what the NSA business is about, part of what police militarization is about, i.e., how to keep them down on the farm, after they realize they’re being fucked with. “They” would be you and me, of course, and I think there’s a chance we’ve got some collective Leo roar to share in the coming months. August always heats things up!
The culture wars define us, seems like. I’d call it racism (of a sort) but perhaps it’s better expressed as “other’ism.” Reminds me of Golda’s prayer in Fiddler on the Roof: “… strengthen them, o Lord, and keep them from the strangers’ ways.” Our primal fear of the snake in the garden converted into the patriarch’s fear of losing power to an awakening public. Pfffft!
“In myth, Saturn was the son of Uranus. Saturn killed his father who had become tyrannical. Then Saturn became a tyrannical ruler himself. The problem is there was no tenderness.”
Boy, ain’t that the truth! I was once on the tail-end of a healing crisis, a long protracted wrestling with self to forgive, release, repair when I received a sweet note from a friend. Finally feeling very positive about the future, very confident that I’d come back to “normal,” I was dismayed to find that when she signed off — with Tenderly, and her name — I burst into tears. We’re so well schooled to toughen up, take it on the chin, move on, we seldom see how CRUCIAL a bit of tenderness really is to our mental and emotional wellbeing.
And I do grok that the concept of tenderness — perhaps over-defined by the word, itself — seems more a girly quality of nurture and gentleness, be, than a masculine emotion, but what a gyp to those who might find themselves afraid of that essential expression BECAUSE of what’s acceptable in gender roles! Of all the wars I’m weary of, I fear, the gender war tops the list.
Thanks for your timely and intelligent assessment, as always, Miss be, and your always-generous praise as well. Here’s hoping that the shocks provided us act as catalyst for growth and enlightenment, needed emotional shake-up and wake-up, rather than simply more to wrangle over and cry about. My n. Eris/Mars/Sun fire-trine never allows me to stop looking for the pony in the horseshit — I just KNOW it’s here somewhere!
And as for praise, Clare, bless you back today, you are most generous and I’m deLighted that the conversation here resonates for you, encouraging you to speak out. We need your voice, those around you need to hear YOUR considered and considerate opinion rather than simply more strident yelping from the Peanut Gallery. We never know what we bring to the conversation that is capable of changing hearts and minds, but I’ve seen majikal turn-arounds happen so often it’s always worth planting those seeds that help others to see something they might have missed, even if they snap and snarl at you at the time.
Sometimes it’s even more elemental that that. I was once in a job where a powerful woman I worked with didn’t like me; no reason I could identify, just made it very obvious I was unacceptable to her. I stopped trying to talk to her except in the morning, when we passed in the hall. I would smile wide and offer her a cheerful, “Good morning!” That’s all, day after day. In about a week, she began to respond with a grim, “Hello.” In a few weeks, she began to smile back. About six weeks in, she became a supportive co-worker and acquaintance, if not a fast friend.
When we sit out the interaction, thinking it risky to put ourselves forward, nothing changes. We undervalue what our own energy can bring — as blessing — to the mix. So bless you back today, my dear, and thank you for joining us here.
Hey, GaryB! Actually Oscar was a blonde terrier-cross and Fishin’ Jim had a favorite bumper sticker that said “Yellow Dog Democrat” on it, so people couldn’t miss his ‘persuasion.’ Jim particularly liked to watch the locals study the sticker (as he waited in the truck for SOMEONE to run in and out of Wal-Mart with their hair on fire, horrified to be stuck in a place where there were no other shopping options!) and guess which ones would come to his window and ask what it meant. He then took great pleasure in telling them that a yellow dog Dem was someone who would rather vote for a yellow dog than a Republican. I say ‘took’ pleasure because someone, somewhere, decided to rip that puppy off in the dead of night — and we don’t have to guess THEIR persuasion, do we?!!
Thanks for your thoughts this week, dearhearts. As Abraham sez, nobody is wrong from their own space and place in consciousness, they’re right where they need to be. With a bit of respect for one another and a sense of what is mutual to our humanity, disagreeing needn’t be disagreeable, while resonant thoughts can spark off creativity and undiscovered solutions.
Blessed be, all, and thanks for playing!
Thanks Judith,
I’m sure faithful ol’ Oscar would be the only one to receive any compassion at all if this weeks news was front page in your red dog state. Unless they found out his left leaning status and created some new voter obstruction rules!
Jude,
Bless you lovely girl for your cosmos-sized heart and cosmic-scale compassion. You have encapsulated my own feelings about kindness and its opposite, the latter especially as demonstrated in responses to even the most thoughtful and considered of blogs.
The most significant effect of your piece – and Kate’s response – on me has been to bring home how I have so often allowed my own fear of such vituperative responses to strike me dumb.
I hereby resolve to be braver and speak up more often in more places. Your own and be’s considered – and considerate – responses to my comment of last week have encouraged a little more confidence in the validity of my own point of view.
And at 60, if not now, then when?
Love,
Clare
Dear Jude,
Once again I’m made acutely aware of how well you translate the pulse of Americans into words/paragraphs/topics that communicate back to those same people what they are feeling but don’t quite recognize. I believe it is a testimony to your own natal Chiron talents that can give form to what is largely undefined within a person’s psyche, and reflect that understanding back to them in such a way that they feel better just knowing there is some kind of logic behind their malaise. You speak for us all.
Of a more general nature, astrology has been pointing out that we are reaching a crossroad in our hike up the mountain of Evolution. How do we determine which path to take to get us to where we want to go? You have touched on the senses that – although underdeveloped through lack of use – are most likely to select the shortest climb to the top. Otherwise, we risk taking a path that will keep us circling the mountain, getting nowhere fast. Jolts like this double calamity – the manmade kind, rather than the kind that come from nature – seem to provide a crack in the resistance we have to change. We recognize our foibles and imperfections even though we are loathe to admit to them. They bring on shame, even when it means just pointing our fingers at the other guy.
The astrology shorthand you speak of would say that Saturn has been dealt a blow by Uranus, but it is really all the outer planets in cahoots backing him up. While Saturn provides the security and safety which is an absolute must in our present world, it hinders our attempts to move forward and learn about the worlds beyond the known. In myth, Saturn was the son of Uranus. Saturn killed his father who had become tyrannical. Then Saturn became a tyrannical ruler himself. The problem is there was no tenderness.
Considered a feminine expression, tenderness has become a sign of weakness in most “developed” societies. It is allowed expression and usually acceptable only among the women and old men and displayed in an exaggerated form. These Might-is-Right societies fear anything of a feminine nature which would dilute their power to rule by submission to their physical prowess. The path up the mountain of Evolution requires a sense of balanced strengths; between masculine logic and feminine intuition. A need for tenderness is intuited through the faculties of our feminine nature and that is not given credence where tyrants reign.
A lack of compassion, kindness, tenderness is the mark of an unbalanced person or society. Overcoming centuries of (largely unconscious) fear would normally take a very long time (Saturn) yet, in a quirky turn of events, it is Uranus (at the behest of Neptune) that might provide a breakthrough – an instantaneous acceptance of change – that would allow a (at least partial) balancing of the left-right, old-new, male-female modus operandi. Working with Pluto in Capricorn, Saturn, while still in a mutual reception situation with him, can go through some transformative alchemy – thanks to these (disturbing to us) recent events that bring out the heart/feminine manifestations in us all.
If not, I’m sure we will get more opportunities. In the meantime we can work on ourselves as you suggest to restore a balanced blend of yin/yang expression. Thanks for clearing the path for us Jude.
be
Good morning, Kate. I too find it bewildering that people read the same things I do and miss the point entirely — although I suppose they’d accuse me of missing THEIR point. It’s the sheer nastiness of their tone that surprises me. I’m not a roll-over-and-take-it kinda gal, those who know me will quickly affirm that, but I’m also not a rude ego-case, looking to stand a bit taller by stepping on someone’s neck. I think — like coyotes — these people find it easier to go after others in packs, and anonymity makes them feel ‘safe’ … a cyber-pack of sorts. The writers call them trolls for a reason.
I agree with E that this behavior is a relationship problem, people projecting out their rage and fear on others. Our PRIMARY relationship is with ourselves. In one of the chapters of my life, I did psychic readings for a living — astro, tarot, channeling — and people were always asking about when they’d find true love. It didn’t take a psychic to tell them the answer: when you learn to love yourself.
And yes, surfdiva, I agree with you. Mother Theresa was a piece of work, a flawed human who was an infamous tyrant and had grave doubts about her religion but, in this quote, she hit the nail on the head. Even a broken clock is right twice a day, eh?
Mother Theresa was not a good person, she was a mean hypocrite. I am reminded of her evil whenever I see her quoted.
Jude, excellent article and exactly what I needed to read this morning. When these events happen, my heart immediately goes to those involved who have been injured or lost their lives, and then, even more so, to the shock, grief and loss that impacts and fractures thousands of other lives. And on and on it goes.
I want to focus on the comments regarding our behaviour to one another, particularly online, which has been troubling me for sometime. And last night, reading two v good articles in a my favourite paper, one one by a woman about men and women, one by a man about men and women – totally seperate pieces, and not without relevance to the story about healing the rift that’s been going on PW over time – I could not believe what I was reading below the line. Are these the people who read the same newspaper as me? Really?
‘vicious response, personal attacks on the intelligence of bloggers, some of it disturbing and almost all of it anonymous’, almost, and I mean almost, drowning out the voices of more humanitarian, compassionate people who are at least willing to engage and understand, rather than judge and condemn.
At times, I despair. Yet, I think E referred to this recently, that this has to do not just with our relationships with others, but lying square and firm within our relationship with ourselves as individuals, and the divide within it. And among other things, tied up with self-esteem. Not everyone of course, but too many nonetheless.