I’m just going to throw this directly out there right now because bottom line, our shared humanity is on the line.
We need to get a grip.
See, the events of late have captured our attention, but good.
It’s another doggone election year in the US, and this one, as fraught as ever, seems to have gathered the momentum of all the elections before it and is barreling toward us like a scary meteor or something.
Election year 2024, same-same but different
So last year, back in the spring of the Year of Our Lord 2023, following a lengthy period of dogged brow-knitting, lip-pursing pursuit, it finally came to pass that Donald Trump was indicted at last. One hellbent attempt after another to nail the man had failed to stick, but finally, something worked. And, of course, a whole lot of courtroom proceedings and applicable side dishes ensued.
Then, a little more than a dramatic year later, an attempt was made at the orange man’s life on July 13, 2024. And so that event has sparked hella drama and hella speculation and hella concern for What It All Means for the “most important election of our time” (which we always say) just four months in the future.
And thus, right on cue, the seemingly obligatory wedge-entrenchment deepens between humans in the U-S of A.
Oh, and never mind that finally, the current POTUS, Joe Biden himself, has conceded that the outlier also trying to take his job this November, RFK, Jr., had better get some Secret Service protection after all, even though said Secret Service didn’t appear to be entirely on their game at Donald Trump’s recent rally where the assassination attempt took place.
But still, for a candidate that the Biden administration was trying to pretend didn’t exist, and for a candidate who many consider to be gumming up the works when so much is at stake, this freshly acknowledged need for the third major candidate whose own father was assassinated on the campaign trail in 1968 to have Secret Service is yet another monkey wrench in this, possibly the US’s most contentious and divisive election year yet.
Meanwhile we wring our hands and look for who to blame
Honestly, it’s hard to imagine that things could be more contentious and divisive between us than they already are, yet, we dutifully continue to widen our divides.
So good golly, Miss Molly, now the state of high alert is at an all-time high throughout the land. Par for the course, the media machine is seeing dolla’ signs, while the heart of many a citizen is racing with alarm due to a variety of existential threats we must worriedly vote against come November.
Basically, a frenzy of freak-out is upon us.
And because we’re pretty damned used to this song by now, we scramble to figure out how to rectify whatever version of threat we believe to be the correct one to avoid. Then we all know what to do: we look for who to blame, who to be afraid of, and who’s standing in the way of Good and Truth.
But hey, the golden rule still applies
While these proceedings promise to fascinate as well as repulse us—much like the Watergate scandal in the ’70s, the Iran-Contra scandal in the ’80s, and, Lord help each and every one of us, the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal in the ’90s—the latest big and sensational story doesn’t mean we have to go at one another.
We actually, truly do not have to become agitated, to say the least, with each other over this or anything else already done or yet to come.
What I mean is that there’s no soul agreement or requirement saying that we have to stir up destructive energy by being haughty, crappy, judge-y humans when it comes to all those humans who hold a position entirely contrary to our own.
In plain English:
Love your neighbor, even if you loathe what they think about Donald Trump.
Or Joe Biden.
Or RFK, Jr.
Or Jill Stein and her ilk, while we’re at it.
After all, what is love but respect for a fellow human who’s breathing the same oxygen we are on this speck of an island home that’s floating in a universe so vast we can’t comprehend it?
Allow me to quote my own self from a previous one of my hot, fresh emails:
I’m wondering if this is what love really is: respecting every human on a deep, deep level, simply as a matter of breathing in and out on the same planet.
Because the only thing we can rely on is the moment we’re having. One more moment isn’t even a sure thing.
And in this moment called the present, we’re sitting here not alone, but with others experiencing the same moment alongside us.
That’s it.
That’s all there is.
The big, big picture
We can fight all the good fights and stand for all the right things and be on “the right side of history” up one side and down the other.
But when it’s all said and done “love your neighbor” is still a thing.
When it’s all said and done, there’s nothing left but the soul within us, which longs for peace, not dominance. (Or at least that’s my take on it.)
When we clear away the fog of it all, we remember that our existence alongside each other may make for great and dramatic stories, but ultimately, it’s not about who’s right and who’s not.
So while our attention is captivated and our senses are inflamed by this giant of a story and the next one to come along and the next one, too—because it surely will…
Let’s you and I each remain present in our shared humanity, why don’t we.
Our peaceful presence is good for the world
May we each remain present in our shared humanity.
Because even when the media and people who seem very smart point out the reprehensible people who clearly don’t know what we know and care like we care, our shared humanity remains.
And this is who we are, in spite of voices that say otherwise—a collective of shared humanity.
This oversized news story and all the rest of that are centered around some polarizing figure in human history are still not more important than our shared humanity.
Don’t let this thing or the next be a wedge between you and other humans, even in the privacy of your own thoughts if you can help it.
Stay peaceful and loving, my shiny friend, because this is good for the world. So, so good.
