Tuesday, July 04, 2017

The Opportunity within the Reality of Trump

There is a site that clocks the seconds of Trump's presidency. Click here to see for yourself. As of this writing, it has been one hundred sixty five days, two hours, twenty nine minutes and fifty nine seconds.

I remember back to the morning of November 9th, and how I was so despondent, I posted this:


The Road is the Pulitzer Prize winning novel that depicts the world after a nuclear attack. The reader isn't told how the world went up in smoke though, thus my comment on the morning after DT was elected. Goodbye beautiful world, I thought as I stumbled through November 9th, because a sociopath like Trump would surely blow us all to smithereens and laugh while pushing the button down. In the midst of my sorrow, something happened though. As I went through the day, I found the colors of the flowers more intense. The air more sweet. The people I met more lovely and more precious. There was a profound sadness, even fear, in me, but I also noticed a profound awareness too.

Here we are, five plus months later, and a kind of cleansing has taken place, a refinement. I left a relationship that no longer served, let go of several toxic connections, and my bond to my children, and my most precious friends, is now a major priority. It's strange to say my life is better because the world is just as screwed up, perhaps even worse. Personally, I'm likely to lose my health insurance, and as someone in the Pacific Northwest, I'm painfully aware that I'm in the first strike zone for the missiles that North Korea aims at the U.S. Meanwhile my president is off golfing (for the 21st time), after endorsing violent methods for dealing with the media, and savagely attacking (via Tweet) a woman who hosts Morning Joe.

Those of us who have had bad fathers are pretty familiar with the routine of a guy like DT, and those of us ready to grow up and be the good parent we've never had, are being presented with remarkable opportunities to express ourselves. Because DT is so outrageous, so out of line, people who usually do nothing are getting involved. They are talking. Meeting. Writing. Rather than folding under this strange leadership, and falling silent, many, many of are standing up for what we believe in ways that we never have before. For example, Comey keeping his meticulous notes and testifying before the world, the Woman's March, and the We are Still In movement where American businesses grouped together to remain in The Paris Accord.

I think of the people in Pompai, or those wiped out by the plague. I revisit the horrors of WWI, and then II, and then I ask myself if our time is more intense than any other? Or is it more intense because it is now? That kind of distance helps me re-think my initial fear. DT is not the end of the human race. He's a former reality TV star, or as Obama said, "a bullshi*#er." Yes, DT is a painful, even frightening presence, it's important to remember he's just a man. The power he has is only in proportion to what we give him, or project on him.

I chose to believe we, as a species, are in state of intense evolution right now and DT is just a part of that process. Those pursing higher consciousness will be working that much harder to achieve self awareness. Those who are dedicated to evil will be stepping up their game too, which we see in the terrorist attacks, in the actions of the North Koreans, in the meddling of the Russians and in DT himself, where every day there is an occurrence more bizarre than the last. We are in a volatile tug-of-war, yanked from the dark to the light and back to the dark again. It's not fun, but it's part of the process of growth. The work is to stay with it. Stay present. Stay awake. Do your part by making the little adjustments you can make. Grow inside, and also step back to see the growth outside of yourself. It's painful, it's frightening, but it's what we are presented with at this time.

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