One Down

By Judith Gayle | Political Waves

It’s that time. This is that moment when we look back at our annual accomplishments and defeats, decide if we’ve gained or lost ground, and pause to reconsider our options. This yearly practice fits into the newly arrived Capricorn signature, assessing where we are in order to reposition ourselves for a new push forward. The point of power in Capricorn is to accept the distilled wisdom of time-honored tradition without carving it in stone. No small task for those of us who stand at the brink of a new year, staring down the seemingly immovable and nonfunctional, hoping against hope that the inflexible Pluto in Cappy gates will fling open to progress and change.

Capricorn represents authority, it rules the Tenth House and begs our wounded sensibilities to ponder the unstable, obsolete infrastructure we’ve depended upon to sustain us. The Pluto signature points us at a Congress that has become infamous for collecting six-figure salaries and accomplishing nothing, at the bloated CEOs of this century feeding mindlessly at the trough of corporate plunder, and at the ongoing systemic misuse of governmental power. Taking our pulse as 2013 rolls over only illuminates our continued need for emergency care.

I suspect it’s likely that this kind of year-end assessment adds to our post-holiday blues. And, considering all we’ve been through over the last dozen or so years, I expect that we come to this practice with trepidation, both personal and public. After all, we haven’t partied like it’s 1999 since — well — 1999. The real change, it seems to me, is what happened between then and now. There have been fundamental changes in not only how the world sees Americans, but how Americans see the world.

As we turned the century, our good humor disappeared in the wake of 9/11, which — so they say — changed the world forever. Most of us spent a few critical years disbelieving the kind of government George W. represented, only barely aware that he was tearing apart our social and environmental protections, confusing foreign adventurism with religious crusade, pledging to liberate the world while indenturing citizens to plutocratic takeover and generally pissing into the Cheerios of friends and foes alike. By the time Obama showed up, we’d already dropped into a hall of (smoke and) mirrors, just beginning the process of discovering how much we’d lost and unprepared for the sink hole that continued to suck us down.

When it turned out the new prez was not the antidote to this downward spiral, a caped crusader who would turn back time to gentler days and egalitarian principles, we became not just outraged but white-knuckled with anxiety. The mythologies around which we built our national outlook — United States exceptionalism and superpower, the American dream for ourselves and future generations, the superiority of free market capitalism and supply side economy, the virtues of middle-class values and an incorruptible justice system — began to show widening cracks.

Adding insult to injury, our press had become so increasingly incestuous, shaped by its corporate mandate, that it offered us little of the reality therapy which, like a bitter-sweet spoonful of sugar, might have helped cauterize our real and psychic wounds and encourage healing. To my mind, we hit the skids last year, slamming into the wall of our own special interests and personal bias, leaving us to talk among ourselves, dependent upon our technology and our lowest common denominator consciousness. Some of us became cyber-bullies, left behind civil discourse and turned our anger on one another — often anonymously — rather than solidifying unity against the system that sought to control us (and too often succeeded). In other words, all of our darkness came up to meet us, our face revealed in the mirror, warts and all. We met the enemy and it was us.

Renewing our contract with “hope and change” last November, we were still squirming and bobbing in the dark waters of deadlock and obstruction at the end 2012. Those of us who harkened to the growing energy of the Ascension movement looked to the end of the old paradigm and the beginning of a new era in December to create critical mass and, although I suppose many would differ, I firmly believe we got it. When we stopped waiting for someone to throw a life preserver and decided it was time to swim, things began to change.

Being humans, we prefer the fantasy of things coming instantly, easily, rather than with persistence and over time — you know, Bippity Boppity Boo! — but a spoonful of reality teaches us that it takes time for change (not cataclysm) to play out. In terms of this first year of a new era, then, it seems to me that we’ve accomplished a good bit of actual sea change and much of it for the best.

First and foremost, we’ve wised up. Polls show that the American public has turned its back on the nihilistic attitudes of the minority party, their insistence on government shut-down a turning point. There are still plenty of zealots out there, and our current electoral system still magnifies the ability of the empowered few to stand in the way of progress, but the public no longer has confidence that today’s GOP works for the good of the nation or its citizens. Bit by bit, the internal poverty of their elitist philosophy has shown its true colors, making it possible for many of us to consider new options.

As Vietnamese monk and Buddhist teacher, Thích Nhất Hạnh wrote in Being Peace, “For things to reveal themselves to us, we need to be ready to abandon our views about them.” Often, it’s pain that brings us to these realizations, and Lord knows, there’s been plenty of that in these last years, softening the hard edges of our national self-image.

Case in point, last weekend hardnosed archconservative and vocal climate-denier, Senator James Inhofe, made an astounding confession on NBC’s Meet the Press:

One of the most partisan Republicans in the Senate, Oklahoma’s Jim Inhofe, said Sunday that his “attitude” toward Senate Democrats has changed as a result of the outpouring of sympathy he received from colleagues after the death of his son. Perry Inhofe, 52, was killed in a plane crash in November.

“I probably shouldn’t say this, but I seem to have gotten more — well at least as many, maybe more — communications from some of my Democrat friends,” Inhofe told host David Gregory on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “And I’m a pretty partisan Republican.”

In the wake of his personal tragedy, Inhofe said, “all of a sudden the old barriers that were there — the old differences, those things that keep us apart — just disappear. It’s not just a recognition that I know how much more important this is, but they do, too. And they look out. And they realize that you’ve lost someone. And that brings us closer together.”

Later in the article, Inhofe continued, “I can’t help but think when I’m confronting someone on something in which we disagree, I’ll know how they responded to my loss. And how we got closer. And it’ll stay that way.” Illustrating Thich’s point, it’s often necessary to surrender our absolutist mindset in order to see what else is right under our nose.

People change, opinions shift, even our own, as we allow them to. This year opinion shifted on LGBT equality and marriage, with the majority of Americans aware that human rights transcend gender issues, an opinion reflected in quickly changing state laws. In other legal arenas, the war on drugs is receiving increased scrutiny, especially in the wake of marijuana approval.

The voices that screeched loudest over the Zimmerman case in Florida have all but silenced themselves now that time has proven him a chronic malcontent with a gun, and, although an amazing number of children continue to suffer from gun violence — poignantly illustrated by a two month old accidentally shot dead on Christmas day by a relative — this kind of tragedy has gotten old with people of conscience. Social reforms that are on our plate and under review will eventually be dealt with, no matter the amount of obstruction from those who profit by impeding them. Their time has come.

The cry for immigration reform keeps that topic in national consciousness, and this year, deportations dropped lower than at any other time in Obama’s term in office. Happily, it appears that the NSA is about to be reigned in, along with a long-due national conversation on government overreach. Edward Snowden may end up being a whistleblower, not a traitor after all, although I don’t expect his return any time soon.

The public knows some new words — frankenfoods, fracking — and has begun to actively decide how much of them, if any, they want to experience. There is no longer an argument about the inevitability of climate change, only disagreement on what to do about it. And no one but the cronies are interested in furthering corporate welfare.

Populism as a ground-up movement is picking up speed, aided by the same simple notions of humanity and compassion proposed by Pope Francis. Elizabeth Warren is keeping the drum beating, her personal popularity growing by leaps and bounds. Currently under fire from Beltway moderates who have packaged themselves under the moniker The Third Way, Warren refuses to back down from her demands for strengthened Social Security, and rightly. Third Way has revealed itself to be less a Dem think tank than a tool of corporate funding and plutocracy akin to the wolf (of Wall Street) in sheep’s clothing.

Meanwhile, Americans overwhelmingly approve of a raise in minimum wage, the continuation of unemployment insurance and increased food stamp assistance. I’m not worried about what we’ve failed to establish as actual policy if it seems clear that we’ve reached a consensus about what that policy must become. We have.

The Iranians overwhelmingly favored a moderate Islamic cleric this year, one willing to break through the walls of political isolation, as their new president, while the old authoritarian Pope — urged, so he said, by God — stepped down to allow the first South American Pope a chance to bring the church into the 21st century.

I don’t see this as just a change of leadership. This Pope’s message of tolerance and acceptance has given the religious world permission to find its heart again and has thrown a monkey wrench into the center of American partisan politics. Francis may prove to be the antidote for our adolescent rash of Ayn Randism.

There was, of course, lots of bad news this year as well. The difficulties of importing democracy became apparent in Egypt, in continuing corruption in Afghanistan and violence in Iraq, Syria and Sudan, and we’ll probably NEVER hear the end of Benghazi. The problems with the Affordable Care Act have turned toxic under the Pub machinery, making the 2014 elections even more difficult for cowardly Dems trying to keep their jobs. The Supreme Court has just begun its march to the sea, making sure the 21st century feels the pain caused Southern states by the Union in the 19th. Still ahead are Wall Street, the Pentagon and the security-industrial complex, all grinding away at our very bones, all waiting to be dealt with.

Still, I repeat, there have been fundamental changes in not only how the world sees Americans, but how Americans see the world,  especially in our own backyard. And no matter what the pundits tell us, I don’t think it was provoked by 9/11 with the heart-pounding, heads-down, eyes-closed fear that assault aroused in us. No, these changes are all about outgrowing our national skin, coming to the end of one era and beginning another.

Our old ways of behaving are as outmoded as our ancient notions of war and conquest. It’s easy to see what doesn’t work, isn’t it? Let’s start with our relationship dynamics. For instance, there is a reason we are rarely able to change another person’s mind, no matter how skillfully we design our argument — and especially if it is combative in any way, making the listener defensive.

We can’t wake another person up, we can only offer information and model rational behavior. It is only when we are able to open our mind to a different possibility that divine intelligence works from WITHIN our situation to awaken us. As Jim Inhofe proves, we can change our minds, even when they’re as hard-edged and partisan as his, when our hearts spring open.

This coming year is our opportunity to try new behaviors, to practice our highest ideals in our personal affairs. In our political lives, as California candidate Marianne Williamson tells us, this is our chance to create a movement that represents the best interests of us all. And after centuries of self-discovery — finally on to ourselves, able to read between the lines of political manipulation and capable of seeing our own errors and correcting them as we go — there is a clear path ahead if we choose it.

In this next exciting and dynamic year of our becoming, I suggest that we be politically aware but not combative. I encourage us all to protest with our wallets, our opinions and — wisely, of course — our participation. I advise us to keep our hearts as open as we can because unless we are coming from our soul-connection, we are not serving our own purpose or developing our power to create dharma for self and others. And, in the cause of peace, I endorse the kind of mindful detachment from war mentality and the emotional chaos of anger and frustration proposed by our friend, Thích Nhất Hạnh, when he tells us:

“When you plant lettuce, if it does not grow well, you don’t blame the lettuce. You look for reasons it is not doing well. It may need fertilizer, or more water, or less sun. You never blame the lettuce. Yet if we have problems with our friends or family, we blame the other person. But if we know how to take care of them, they will grow well, like the lettuce. Blaming has no positive effect at all, nor does trying to persuade using reason and argument. That is my experience. No blame, no reasoning, no argument, just understanding. If you understand, and you show that you understand, you can love, and the situation will change”

A new year ahead, an appreciation of both our challenges and how much we have accomplished, a growing community of like minds dedicated to caring for one another and recreating a government of, for and by those very ones. A Course in Miracles reminds us that we can, at every moment, make new choices. Life can respond to those choices in a miraculous way. In this coming year — our second in this new era of possibility — remember to choose for inclusion, for compassion, for love.