the title of this article is an auspicious reminder for me tonight. there’s the election, sure. but in the flow of awareness that i have access to at the moment, what’s larger for me are stray dogs around my property, and they’re hungry, and there’s nothing i can do to help, and what i can do may not, in fact, help. so i’m being with that as my body braces and exhausts and my mind spins wild stories about my inadequacy. the reality of helplessness.
a reminder to be this whole happening, to welcome all of it, is just what i needed to read. thank you 🙏🏻 ♥️
I love this Joan. "Look there I am showing up as...." oh my goodness, absolutely everything and nothing. Thank you as always for your voice...it echoes deep inside me🙏❤️
I didn't say there was no difference, and I did say I have serious concerns about him, and I do. He seems to have no feeling for the natural world or the environment, and no concern about climate change. He is an outrageous liar and a conman who speaks in many ways like a fascist. He seems to me like someone with narcissistic personality disorder, possible sociopathy, and no moral compass whose main concern seems to be himself. He has a fragile ego and is vulnerable to flattery, insult and being baited (as Kamala did so successfully during the debate, and he took the bait every time and couldn't stay on message). He stirs up division and uses violent rhetoric. One of the most concerning things is his continuing refusal to accept his defeat in the last election. He is definitely not someone I want to see in the White House.
What I don't see is a Hitler figure, someone who will become a dictator and destroy democracy. I know many people disagree, including many of my friends and many people I've listened to including Bernie Sanders, Margaret Atwood, Sam Harris, and others. And I certainly am concerned about the rise of Christian nationalism and the religious right in general. But I'm still not seeing Trump as some kind of Hitler. I may be wrong. But I don't feel that's what's likely to happen.
I also see the Democrats twisting his words and using a lot of fear mongering. And I understand why many people are supporting him. As a long-time progressive, I've felt increasingly politically homeless in recent years. I disagree with many things the so-called woke left has been doing, which Biden, Kamala and the Democratic Party seem to be totally into. And I know I'm not alone. I also don't like a lot of Biden's foreign policy. War is horrible for the environment and for animals and all living beings, and in some situations, I think Trump might actually be more likely to avoid it.
We survived 4 years of Trump before. My sense is that we'd survive another 4 years if he wins. He might even tack to the center, as some on the right apparently fear. After all, he used to be a Democrat, and I don't think he is really religious or against abortion. And since he wouldn't have to worry about getting re-elected again (as Kamala would), he might no longer need to appeal to his far right base. Who knows? He might surprise us.
Anyway, what will be, will be. My mother brought me a recording of Doris Day singing Que Sera Sera when I was little. So I got that message early on, and it's proven true. It seems useless to worry about what might happen. For whatever reason, I honestly am not worried.
For those who want to hear the case for Trump, with which I have some sympathy, check out Joe Rogan's interviews with Trump, Elon Musk and JD Vance. You can find them all on YouTube. Rogan, Musk and JD are former leftists who, like me, have become disillusioned in different ways with where the left has gone. Also check out Ben Shapiro on TFP: https://www.thefp.com/p/ben-shapiro-vote-donald-trump. Ben Shapiro is a conservative, and I disagree with him on many things, but appreciate some of what he says in favor of Trump. Finally, this article on Trump is also an interesting perspective: https://www.thefp.com/p/trump-art-of-bullshit.
I oddly feel the same and your words helped me recognize that in myself. I hope he’s too lazy to try and do anything crazy. Keep him on the golf course ⛳️
Hitler though wasn't the only successful fascist. Historicans of fascism like Timothy Snyder consider the (perfectly understandable) reflex to always make the Hitler comparison unfortunate, tending to obscure family resemblances among the various authoritarian, violent and scapegoating approaches to wielding power coming under the 'fascist' head. Personally I think it's pretty clear Trump is willing to be a fascist if it suits the moment, and many of his attendants (Miller, Vance et al) are literal fascists.
The wider issue that tends to go unnoticed amidst the distress of rejection felt by the left is whether the US being in the grip of fascism will necessarily turn out to be worse than the corporate Dem alternative. It could well be unstable and lead to the US's decline, which most of us out here in the wider world won't object to. The US is no longer widely admired, and we'd like to see its power diluted by an economically incompetent leadership. On the other hand, there's at least some chance that the new administration will kill international efforts to combat climate collapse, which may well be a coup de grace for a climate stable enough to maintain large scale agriculture.
But who knows? No-one can predict the future. Doom-laden fears are ultimately just more predictions. Nothing to hang our hats on.
Your writing always reactivates and reconnects to that felt inner wisdom that is close by and ever-present despite the fleeting of life's circumstances sensations and experiences.
This brief post is the sanest thing I've yet heard someone say about the current presidential race. More broadly, it's just a lovely and potent reminder of who I/you/we am/are. Gratitude as always.
Thank you Joan. I like your (and Billy Doyle’s, Robert Saltzman’s and especially Darryl Bailey’s) frequent use of the adjective “apparent.” It reminds me of, no matter how much we think we know, how immensely little we know. On a second reading, I inserted it in front of all of the list of objects that showed up in your awareness - an apparent ant, etc. - and it changed the experience for me. Just this… just this apparent choice, apparent election, apparent day … Have a good one 🙏✌️❤️
Today will be a challenge. I also understand it as an opportunity to "see deeper". See these extreme emotions rise and fall within myself, when the stakes feel (and probably are, in the relative world), so high.
Anyway, I liked this: "We so often try desperately to understand and explain this aliveness. We enter into a dream-like hypnotic trance, imagining a world and many others outside of ourSelf. We take positions for and against. We hate the apparent other or love them, fear them or long for them. We want to kill them or convert them, possess them or become them, save them or silence them. And then we remember, if only for moments at a time, that they are simply a momentary shape “I” am taking."
Reading your quote from Billy Doyle and looking out the window to an intense, unexpected rainstorm that is flooding the street in front of my house, I realized how I am, indeed, not separate from the house and the rain and the whole planet. Yet I am spending my entire life "rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic." Not that there is anything wrong with that. But maybe if I pause and look around there is more to appreciate and to love right here and now and a not waste so much energy fretting and stressing about things that won't matter.
thank you for this: "I wish you all a peaceful election day and beyond. Things may feel disappointing, unsettling or terrifying for some in the coming days or weeks, but remember that all things pass. When it invites you, give open to attention to the awaring presence that is most intimate, closer than close, and at the same time, borderless and all-inclusive. Feel the aliveness and the subtlety of it. Enjoy the miraculous display of present experiencing. Behold it all from the wholeness of unconditional love."
Thank you, thank you, thank you Joan and everybody else who has shared. It helps enormously and opens my "eyes" to another reality that the one I think is. I had not read your article but at the end of the "election experience", I asked myself what was the lesson for me. I came to the conclusion, right away, that it is to not take myself as someone else (like someone who can figure this out), to not think that I know best what should be happening, to open my heart to Trump and the Trumpists. For me, love and humility are the way. Be well Joan. Be well my friends.
Well, the election is over. Thankfully, it was quick and decisive. I was neither surprised nor disappointed by the results. My hope is that this will bring forth a much needed course correction on the left. To everyone on the left who is wondering what happened, or to those who believe that over half the country is a bunch of ignorant racist, sexist, homophobic idiots, I recommend reading this article by a young woman who worked for Obama, Bernie and Hillary, and who just voted for Trump:
Thankyou Joan. 🙏❤️
the title of this article is an auspicious reminder for me tonight. there’s the election, sure. but in the flow of awareness that i have access to at the moment, what’s larger for me are stray dogs around my property, and they’re hungry, and there’s nothing i can do to help, and what i can do may not, in fact, help. so i’m being with that as my body braces and exhausts and my mind spins wild stories about my inadequacy. the reality of helplessness.
a reminder to be this whole happening, to welcome all of it, is just what i needed to read. thank you 🙏🏻 ♥️
I love this Joan. "Look there I am showing up as...." oh my goodness, absolutely everything and nothing. Thank you as always for your voice...it echoes deep inside me🙏❤️
Thank you for this post. It was helpful and insightful. But…
The only thing I cannot fathom about your
Viewpoint is your assertion Trump probably won’t be a disaster. I cannot turn my eyes away from the suffering that will ensue from his policies.
The increasing of environmental destruction, no effort on climate change, the suffering of
so many poor people, migrants and animals
Your comment about a possible lack of difference seems very Weird!
I didn't say there was no difference, and I did say I have serious concerns about him, and I do. He seems to have no feeling for the natural world or the environment, and no concern about climate change. He is an outrageous liar and a conman who speaks in many ways like a fascist. He seems to me like someone with narcissistic personality disorder, possible sociopathy, and no moral compass whose main concern seems to be himself. He has a fragile ego and is vulnerable to flattery, insult and being baited (as Kamala did so successfully during the debate, and he took the bait every time and couldn't stay on message). He stirs up division and uses violent rhetoric. One of the most concerning things is his continuing refusal to accept his defeat in the last election. He is definitely not someone I want to see in the White House.
What I don't see is a Hitler figure, someone who will become a dictator and destroy democracy. I know many people disagree, including many of my friends and many people I've listened to including Bernie Sanders, Margaret Atwood, Sam Harris, and others. And I certainly am concerned about the rise of Christian nationalism and the religious right in general. But I'm still not seeing Trump as some kind of Hitler. I may be wrong. But I don't feel that's what's likely to happen.
I also see the Democrats twisting his words and using a lot of fear mongering. And I understand why many people are supporting him. As a long-time progressive, I've felt increasingly politically homeless in recent years. I disagree with many things the so-called woke left has been doing, which Biden, Kamala and the Democratic Party seem to be totally into. And I know I'm not alone. I also don't like a lot of Biden's foreign policy. War is horrible for the environment and for animals and all living beings, and in some situations, I think Trump might actually be more likely to avoid it.
We survived 4 years of Trump before. My sense is that we'd survive another 4 years if he wins. He might even tack to the center, as some on the right apparently fear. After all, he used to be a Democrat, and I don't think he is really religious or against abortion. And since he wouldn't have to worry about getting re-elected again (as Kamala would), he might no longer need to appeal to his far right base. Who knows? He might surprise us.
Anyway, what will be, will be. My mother brought me a recording of Doris Day singing Que Sera Sera when I was little. So I got that message early on, and it's proven true. It seems useless to worry about what might happen. For whatever reason, I honestly am not worried.
Thank you
I did misinterpret some of your wording.
Your elaboration was helpful
For those who want to hear the case for Trump, with which I have some sympathy, check out Joe Rogan's interviews with Trump, Elon Musk and JD Vance. You can find them all on YouTube. Rogan, Musk and JD are former leftists who, like me, have become disillusioned in different ways with where the left has gone. Also check out Ben Shapiro on TFP: https://www.thefp.com/p/ben-shapiro-vote-donald-trump. Ben Shapiro is a conservative, and I disagree with him on many things, but appreciate some of what he says in favor of Trump. Finally, this article on Trump is also an interesting perspective: https://www.thefp.com/p/trump-art-of-bullshit.
I oddly feel the same and your words helped me recognize that in myself. I hope he’s too lazy to try and do anything crazy. Keep him on the golf course ⛳️
Hitler though wasn't the only successful fascist. Historicans of fascism like Timothy Snyder consider the (perfectly understandable) reflex to always make the Hitler comparison unfortunate, tending to obscure family resemblances among the various authoritarian, violent and scapegoating approaches to wielding power coming under the 'fascist' head. Personally I think it's pretty clear Trump is willing to be a fascist if it suits the moment, and many of his attendants (Miller, Vance et al) are literal fascists.
The wider issue that tends to go unnoticed amidst the distress of rejection felt by the left is whether the US being in the grip of fascism will necessarily turn out to be worse than the corporate Dem alternative. It could well be unstable and lead to the US's decline, which most of us out here in the wider world won't object to. The US is no longer widely admired, and we'd like to see its power diluted by an economically incompetent leadership. On the other hand, there's at least some chance that the new administration will kill international efforts to combat climate collapse, which may well be a coup de grace for a climate stable enough to maintain large scale agriculture.
But who knows? No-one can predict the future. Doom-laden fears are ultimately just more predictions. Nothing to hang our hats on.
Thank you Joan, your writings resonate as a lighthouse in a mighty storm . A grapple hook to secure to a rock.
The words are something to hold onto, without holding too tightly.
The eye of the storm, where there is calm..
The fulcrum, where there is balance.
Thankyou.
Susan.
Many thanks as ever Joan.
Your writing always reactivates and reconnects to that felt inner wisdom that is close by and ever-present despite the fleeting of life's circumstances sensations and experiences.
Gently 🙏
This brief post is the sanest thing I've yet heard someone say about the current presidential race. More broadly, it's just a lovely and potent reminder of who I/you/we am/are. Gratitude as always.
Thank you Joan. I like your (and Billy Doyle’s, Robert Saltzman’s and especially Darryl Bailey’s) frequent use of the adjective “apparent.” It reminds me of, no matter how much we think we know, how immensely little we know. On a second reading, I inserted it in front of all of the list of objects that showed up in your awareness - an apparent ant, etc. - and it changed the experience for me. Just this… just this apparent choice, apparent election, apparent day … Have a good one 🙏✌️❤️
Today will be a challenge. I also understand it as an opportunity to "see deeper". See these extreme emotions rise and fall within myself, when the stakes feel (and probably are, in the relative world), so high.
Anyway, I liked this: "We so often try desperately to understand and explain this aliveness. We enter into a dream-like hypnotic trance, imagining a world and many others outside of ourSelf. We take positions for and against. We hate the apparent other or love them, fear them or long for them. We want to kill them or convert them, possess them or become them, save them or silence them. And then we remember, if only for moments at a time, that they are simply a momentary shape “I” am taking."
Reading your quote from Billy Doyle and looking out the window to an intense, unexpected rainstorm that is flooding the street in front of my house, I realized how I am, indeed, not separate from the house and the rain and the whole planet. Yet I am spending my entire life "rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic." Not that there is anything wrong with that. But maybe if I pause and look around there is more to appreciate and to love right here and now and a not waste so much energy fretting and stressing about things that won't matter.
dear joan,
thank you for this: "I wish you all a peaceful election day and beyond. Things may feel disappointing, unsettling or terrifying for some in the coming days or weeks, but remember that all things pass. When it invites you, give open to attention to the awaring presence that is most intimate, closer than close, and at the same time, borderless and all-inclusive. Feel the aliveness and the subtlety of it. Enjoy the miraculous display of present experiencing. Behold it all from the wholeness of unconditional love."
much love,
myq
Thank you, thank you, thank you Joan and everybody else who has shared. It helps enormously and opens my "eyes" to another reality that the one I think is. I had not read your article but at the end of the "election experience", I asked myself what was the lesson for me. I came to the conclusion, right away, that it is to not take myself as someone else (like someone who can figure this out), to not think that I know best what should be happening, to open my heart to Trump and the Trumpists. For me, love and humility are the way. Be well Joan. Be well my friends.
Dear Joan, again I can feel the ripples across the ocean...
Well, the election is over. Thankfully, it was quick and decisive. I was neither surprised nor disappointed by the results. My hope is that this will bring forth a much needed course correction on the left. To everyone on the left who is wondering what happened, or to those who believe that over half the country is a bunch of ignorant racist, sexist, homophobic idiots, I recommend reading this article by a young woman who worked for Obama, Bernie and Hillary, and who just voted for Trump:
https://www.thefp.com/p/democrat-fundraiser-evan-barker-i-voted-trump.