Elect Compassion

Time to check the boxes, but check your pulse as well…

The new moon two days ago marks a dark night planet wide. Lest that appear too foreboding, let us remember that this is a simple act of natural bodies orbiting and light dancing through a boundless expanse of space.

It is the season of clocks changing, bringing darker evenings to those in the northern hemisphere of this precious little rock.

In the US, Halloween has passed, bringing the palpable approach of “the holiday season” and all the busyness, urgency, stress, and glad tidings that come with that. Oh, and yes, we are two days out from that ritual of re-selecting a leader for this great big nation.

From most quarters of my life, I sense an urgency in this [offensively overpriced] campaign cycle, maybe urgency is not quite the right word. The word anxiety is probably better. Two camps stand out most prominently to me, those who feel the outcome of this election is existential for the nation (I’ve spent some time there) and those who feel the choices have little meaning and there are bigger pains afoot regardless of who wins the match (I’ve lived here as well.)

In the near term and simplest of observations, we can be confident in one thing for sure. On the other side of the selection a very many millions of people in this country, though by no means limited to these shores, will be feeling a real upset and probable fear for what comes next…

Many US citizens today (though perhaps a vocal minority) feel strongly opposed to those on the other side of the aisle, and many even opposed to those in the latter camp of abstinance above, wishing they could dragoon those into their own “forward push.” Phrases like “Civil War” have been bandied about, broad aspersions cast, and campaigns of dehumanization abound.

Readers of these pages will be not unfamiliar with terms such as “poly crisis,” or “metacrisis,” as gesturing towards much wider spread and deeper tectonic shifts afoot. America has undoubtedly left its mark upon the world. The decisions today and Tuesday and tomorrow will continue to exert a meaningful influence on the lives and trajectories of billions of beings, many and perhaps most of them not even “people” in our current terms…

There is a great call to “get out the vote,” and if that is your cup of tea, please do. Vote for him, or her, or policy or principal, vote for participation or for abstinence from compliance, accept the premise that voting is unavoidable and consequential, or see through the construct as empty, ephemeral, and of little meaning. Check that box on the page or in your mind, but then check your pulse.

That actual feeling in your fingertips, that’s life. That is throbbing evolutionary vitality, it is the source of every perception of beauty, fear, joy, anger, compassion, and peace. That very thing flows through the neighbor down the block, you know the one with the wrong yard sign. It flows through the bird on the wing, the trees that you, in your good fortune, may find lining your street.

At the end of the day, it’s that pulse that matters. Is it here, is it gone? Is it flourishing in harmonic resonance or limping through discord? The pulse in your body AND the pulse in the world, these are connected. Yes, ideas matter. Yes, freedom matters. At the end of the day though, the measure of these things: policy, character, ideology, the place of hopes and fears, the measure of these things comes through in how we treat “the least among us.”

The measure of our practice, be it civics or religion or meditation or simply life, the measure of our practice is conduct. Perhaps on election day you will find yourself fiercely committed to a victory for one over another course of action that really matters. Whether you find that you’ve won or lost I’d like to invite you to look to the day after. There will be a lot of heavy lifting to do going forward.

Many Americans will feel let down on November 6. On the same day, many Americans will feel vindicated and assured. Given America’s various roles in the world, so too will people everywhere feel more confident or afraid. While it is sure some work we do is at the voting booth, the real effort lives in our own hearts, it lives next door, online in cyberspace and around the world.

I don’t mean to sound too simplistic, or naïve, but honestly on November 6, may we all elect compassion.

First for ourselves, if we are heartbroken for an outcome, or if we are exuberant with success, remember the fear on the other side of that emotion. For ourselves, let’s practice compassion to know that our loss is not who we are, to know that our victory does not solve the problems.

First for ourselves, as if an inhale, and then relax the muscles and let go the breath, become a small sweet breeze to care, not just for those loved ones around you who felt or feel as you, but for those loved ones, neighbors, and strangers whose hearts too are feeling fearful or relieved.

First for ourselves and then for each other.

If you’ve won, seek out and listen to the disappointment, not to reassure with your confidence, but breathe together, find some simple shared space of calm and listen to what honest human fears and concerns live in the bodies around you. Listen carefully and well to understand the deeper streams where their care and yours are one. You will need to know these going forward to see whether your victory will actually rise to the occasion of caring for these honest needs.

If you’ve lost, similarly there, perhaps go out and find someone who’s hopes have been fulfilled, ask questions and listen carefully to learn how they will measure the hoped-for successes of this victory. Understand these milestones well so that, should they arise, you can celebrate with them in empathetic joy for their success.

These are of course just suggestions, there’s probably a better way, there’s probably a better way for you. My only urging is that we find the ways, that doing so is necessarily on the shoulders of each of us moment to moment and day-to-day, that we find the ways of increasing our living care for one another, for those beings with whom we come in contact. Today this arises in a climate of deep systemic instability, PROFOUND uncertainty, and a heightened sense of urgency, crisis, and paths of right and wrong.

Begin with yourself, breathe. Make your peace with what is here, make your peace with what is to come, most of all commit yourself to loving most skillfully in the time and place that really matters, here, now, always that, with those before you.

November 6 in the US is a moment of tremendous opportunity. Let’s all go to work and listen and care for and love one another. Let us do that better each day than the day before and, to paraphrase a 90s drama TV show, “slowly, too slowly, things will get better.”

Life is much bigger than picking a so-called leader, let us retain our commitment, but put aside our aggression, let us put into practice Love at the front.