In Times of Trouble the Crème Rises to the Top

 

In times of trouble the crème rises to the top…such as the insights and creativity, from such people as Lucian K. Truscott.

I just read his Substack post:

“This is Our Rosa Parks Moment.” 

Truscott writes:

“Politics is not the only mechanism by which democracy works.”

“Democrats tried and failed to end the Vietnam war in 1972 with their votes for George McGovern and lost. Richard Nixon carried 49 of 50 states and won the popular vote by 18 million votes.

“The protesters at Fort Benning wanted the war to end, but it didn’t happen overnight, but it did happen.

In 1973, the soldiers were brought home, and two years after that, the war ended because we lost it and pulled out of Vietnam militarily for good. It was unrestrained power and idiocy that started the war in Vietnam. It wasn’t the power of the vote in our democracy that ended that war.

It was the hundreds of thousands of protesters just like those at Fort Benning who did it.”

Peter Greaves commented on Truscott’s post. The president-elect was only elected by 32% of those eligible to vote. He was allowed to be elected by 38% of eligible voters who chose not to cast a ballot.

He does not have a mandate.

Nine days before Election Day, Donald Trump delivered his closing argument at a Madison Square Garden rally that drew comparisons to a 1939 pro-Nazi rally in the same arena and characterized by similar anti-democratic themes: demonization of immigrants and political enemies, invocation of strongman leadership, threats of violent retribution, denunciations of the press.  

Enough Americans bought it to elect him.

We must conclude that most voters want what Trump is offering.

Or it could be that they have been gaslighted into believing his lies.

I know people are angry and want to strike out—we’ve been stirred up for the last nine years—people are on tenterhooks. Don’t you know, folks, it was planned that way?

From Paul Rosenberg:

“Like the conman in the original film “Gaslight,” Trump spun elaborate fictions, claiming that Obama had come out of nowhere, demanding to see his college transcripts and inventing a team of investigators sent to Hawaii (who did not exist). That got the anti-Obama base fired up, while presenting a pseudo-serious facade to the broader public. This is how he gaslights routinely in politics, rarely engaging directly with the right-wing mythologies he taps into, but freely improvising his own fantasy extensions.  

In this election, Trump relied on five key themes of gaslighting in various different ways, all of them adding up to an overarching sixth theme: Democrats are the real threat to American democracy, and Donald Trump is its savior. 

“It is the upside-down logic used in abusive relationships.

“Gaslighters may lie all the time, but when the chips are down, they gaslight.”

For example, “The hate you saw was really love, and if you can’t see that, you’re the hateful one.”

(Google— “How Donald Trump Gaslit America,” by Paul Rosenberg.)

 

Wow, that President elect isn’t stupid, he is devious.

Or, could it be that the idea that a woman of color could possibly become President is so repugnant to many that they would elect a rapist, misogynist, amoral man who cannot even take pleasure in winning but must still rail at the Democrats?

Doesn’t he know that an athletic event (since he likes fighting so much—as displayed on the Joe Rogan show) has two sides?

(The fighting they were so enamored with is extreme fighting where they kick to break their opponent’s legs, and sometimes the fighters carry a razor blade to cut themselves to make their injuries seem worse.)

If you win, you celebrate, but you do not want to annihilate your opponent, they were there so you could win.

Didn’t your coach teach you anything about sportsmanship?

The country elected a man by a democratic voting system—even Latino men whom he has threatened to deport voted for him. I’m boggled.  

I’m ashamed. When hate opens the door it gives other haters permission to be their worst. Some far-right men have taunted social media women, “Your body, my choice.”

That tells me the abortion ban is not about saving babies. (Nobody wants to kill a baby.) It’s about sticking it to women. It’s about control.

I always wondered when I saw how maligned an unwed mother was, how she was hidden, set off, made ashamed, and ridiculed. Sometimes, the man just ran off. Then, after the baby was born, “Oh, how cute it is.” Now, it is a person. While it was in the woman, it was a shameful sexual act, a biological blight that made the woman swell up and commit to the act of pushing what feels like a watermelon out of her body. And let’s make sure she did it, and hopefully in pain. (Evidenced by some nuns who facilitated childbirth.) The Bible said a woman was unclean after giving birth and had to spend a certain number of days to cleanse.

Back to the question I posed in an earlier blog—and it is not why Harris lost. Why did Trump win?

“Trump’s voters turned out because they believed him when he stood up there at his rallies and claimed that he would fix all their problems, whatever they were.  For them, it was what passed for leadership, so they followed him.  He won’t fix things, he doesn’t even know what their problems are, and he doesn’t care.  But that doesn’t matter right now.

“What matters for us is that the time for complaining is over.  Here is how my father told me to get over myself: 

“Buck up.  There are things to figure out and work to do.  We have the tools; we’re smart; we can do it.”

—Lucian K Truscott

The Preamble to the Constitution of the United States:
"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
 
“Before he (the President elect) enters on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:– I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
 
Fourteenth amendment: Section 3 

No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

Why haven’t we acted on this?

Stop Fixing Yourself, Wake Up, All is Well

 

"With the simple act of reaching out our hand to the Universe, we become partners with life." --Julia Cameron

 

Ah yes. As my years have become more, I see that time is our most cherished possession—if you can possess time, which you can't. It goes its merry way, and either we relish in it or fritter it away.

 

No more frittering.

 

However, that does not mean that we don't cloud gaze or watch the sunset- we had the most amazing one last night. It was like a tequila sunrise (sunset), layered, starting with a brilliant fuchsia and ending in gold. We wool-gather, we take in forest walks, sometimes called "Forest Bathing." I've read that three days in the forest will clear the pipes for a week. And river rifting? A week on the river can be life-changing. One soldier who had shrapnel in his head and would only say, "F-you," would, by the end of a week kayaking, speak complete sentences. And they were clean ones. 

 

I just dipped into Julia Cameron's latest book—you may remember her book out ten years ago, The Artist Way, where she introduced the idea of "Morning Pages." Writing Morning Pages allows you to write out the crap so the good stuff can come through. Morning Pages are where you can whine and complain, and no one can hear you. Only the page listens. 

 

Cameron also introduced the idea of the Artist's Date—where once a week, you take yourself to a place that inspires you. Your date could be a fabric store or a museum. Oh, I remember, as a kid, I had two favorite stores in town. One was the saddle shop, where I smelled the leather just walking past its open doors, and it raised my spirits. The other was the art supply store, where I salivated over the paints, brushes, and drawing paper. 

 

Cameron's new book is Walking in This World. In it, she adds a third to-do to her list. It is a once-a-week, 20- minute walk.

 

"We walk as we live, a step at a time, and there is something in gently walking that reminds me of how I must live if I am to savor this life that I have been given." –Julia Cameron.

 

 

Well, kiddos, here I am with my head in the clouds again and feel inspired again after spending a day writing another blog post that I discarded.

 

On that post, I was inspired by Brene's Brown, who said, "Vulnerability is not as hard, scary, or dangerous as reaching the end of our lives and asking ourselves, ‘What if I had shown up?’"

 

So, I wondered how to show up. How to tell one's truth—you know truth varies with the one telling it. I began writing about a couple of people who showed up and spoke their truth. However, it was dismal stuff. The stuff the media likes, the stuff that keeps us afraid. Do I want to spend the end of my life there?

 

No.

 

I know people are worried, afraid, and disheartened. I do not mean to minimize their fear. We think Covid is here to stay, darn, but think of it this way, Diphtheria is here to stay too. Polio is here to stay and a pile of other diseases, yet we spend little time worrying about them. This Covid could enter into that realm, cropping up once in a while, unthought-of at other times.

 

I am sorry for all the ills that have happened on our planet. I am sorry we have injured each other. One quote by Dorothy Thompson, the columnist I was writing about, said that the rise of Nazis had nothing to do with class, race, or profession. Nazism, she insisted, had to do with something more innate. "Kind, good, happy, gentlemanly, secure people never go Nazi. But those driven by fear, resentment, insecurity, or self-loathing? They would always fall for fascism.*

 

I know we inherited most of our beliefs from our well-meaning parents, school, society, and who knows what all, probably from our DNA. We have been conditioned. And so, we seek out supporting evidence to support our beliefs. Yep, that is the human condition. 

 

But listen to Anthony De Mello, "Stop Fixing Yourself," Wake up, all is well. 

 

His point?

 

Wake up, Be aware, notice 

 

We are not a problem to be solved. We have not understood this, so we continue to be anxious, insecure, fearful, resentful, unforgiving, and aggressive. In short, we suffer.

 

Yet all around us is divinity within easy grasp. If we discover that divinity, the challenges we struggle to fix will fix themselves.

 

That is grace.

 

The codicil on DeMello's idea is, it requires being aware of what's going on inside us. Awareness wakes us to the truth—which awareness is guaranteed to do. 

 

Joe Dispenza says something similarly taken from a scientific point of view. He says that when we are aware when we notice what we are thinking and rethinking (he says 95% of the thought we think today we thought yesterday), but if we can change our thought patterns from survival to creative, the body heals itself. 

 

Could it be that we have a base of happiness—somewhere deep inside us? I don't know where it is located, but I believe it is there. When we are truly happy, we have a glimpse into that wellspring that lives inside us, but we are afraid it won't last, and we quickly cover it with debris.

 

 

"It's enough for you to be simply watchful and awake," wrote De Mello. Awareness, he said, releases reality to change you. By simply being aware, all that is false and neurotic within you will drop, and your eyes will open to the divinity surrounding you. You will suddenly see that all is well. That you are already happy, and always have been. You are at peace right now and always have been—you just didn't know it.

 

Isn't that what people who have had a near-death experience proclaim?

 

Isn't it fascinating how our minds will reject such thoughts? Yeah, right, that can't be true. That isn't in my experience. What's ya mean, I'm ok? That's BS. I've gone to therapy for 20 years. They have dug deep into my past, childhood, hurts, disappointments, and trauma. Oh yes, trauma is the worst. I've been traumatized. Happy? Snappy. Pfiff.

 

I saw the most beautiful baby at the grocery store yesterday. Her mom was selecting some fruit, and she was sitting in her stroller, smiling at me. Do you remember your babies or someone else's kicking their little feet and giggling? You might say they are innocent and don't know the world's problems or the ills that are out to get us. No, they don't. 

 

They are enjoying being alive.

 

 *What is fascism in simple terms?

Fascism is a system of government led by a dictator who typically rules by forcefully and often violently suppressing opposition and criticism, controlling all industry and commerce, and promoting nationalism and often racism.