It’s been a long couple of years. From conflicts festering around the world to the disparities in our own backyard, we continue to look for answers but are forced to do so by wading through the detritus of information we are now made to accept as news. And the very people we once sought out to provide comfort and a sense of balance and reason have been compelled to join the ranks of carnival barkers belching out acerbic rhetoric of their own as they rail against the madness being inflicted upon us by a few self-centered opportunists. When you stand in the middle of such conflicting forces, they all sound alike after a while. So what are you to do? If you’re finding all of this to be a hard pill to swallow, how about we just stop for a moment, and have a nice cup of tea? A nice, hot blend of Honest Tea.
Many of you may get a kick out of watching the amusement show that passes for political discourse these days and have given those machinations a wide berth.
Don’t.
Politics isn’t for entertainment; it’s for enlightenment. It’s an opportunity for you to see who measures up for the job of leading the effort to create a community where everyone can live their lives to the fullest extent of their passions, talents, resources, and humanity. Where everyone can collaborate in taking in the best of what we have by putting in the best we can produce. It’s the toughest job in the world, and it requires someone with a healthy measure of integrity, humility, wisdom, strength, patience, insight, honesty, gumption, and a sense of self-sacrifice to do it all as a dedicated public servant. So if you don’t see any of that in a given person in the midst of that circus, then your choice is clear. Take a sip of that tea and go for a walk.
Some of you may have been desensitized by the incredible amounts of violence that surround us these days. I’m not dwelling on specifics here; I’m not going to squabble about the violence we consume in our entertainment or our sporting events or even the manner in which we do innocuous activities like cooking or exercising. I’m talking about the violence in our language; the terms in which we have grown accustomed to hearing people use when referring to places, things, and people as something that they’re not.
Don’t.
I find it distasteful enough that we refer to animals as livestock, but so be it. But I do draw the line at referring to another human being as a disease or parasitic insect. If you find that acceptable; if you can wave such incidences off with a smirk or a passing gesture as though you just smelled something offensive that will clear in a moment? Then that alone makes you a disease; a cancer that spreads unchecked without any concern for those it infects. It reduces your value and that of everyone you love, cherish, admire, or respect. It even reduces your enemy, taking away the very power you can employ to build bridges instead of weapons; to build new friendships instead of fostering enmity. If that’s what you hear coming out of the mouth of someone in a political campaign, then your choice is clear. Take another sip of tea and keep moving.
Many of you might feel disenfranchised; abandoned by a system that promised so much yet seems to deliver so little. You need help today, results now, justice in a flash. And when you don’t get what you need – what you’re entitled to – you get mad; you get angry. I get it. I get it because we’ve all felt that in one way or another. And if you’re kept from those solutions for too long in your estimation – those solutions that would make your life easier, more productive, less fearful, and fair, then you get vengeful and seek retribution for that injustice in any way you can.
Don’t.
We are not mountains; we are not celestial bodies in a universe that measures existence in eons. We are finite creatures that require so much in a world that is so vast with ideologies seemingly so different and counterintuitive. But they all have certain universal similarities: They’re all comprised of people just like you; people who seek solutions so they may live in peace and enjoy the bounty of their efforts. People who would much prefer to stay home and establish roots and foster legacies within the warmth of their culture that would provide benefits for all, rather than live a life of social displacement and eventual anonymity, disparagement, or distrust. Above all, they recognize that we all need to lend a hand in creating the very solutions we seek. And those efforts take time; they require patience. They demand a sense of willful collaboration that measures success by what is provided for the whole rather than a few who seek only to take. If you don’t sense any of that from the attitude or demeanor of a person running for office – any office – then your choice is clear. Take one more sip of that tea, then stop for a moment, sit down, and take a deep breath.
In this current era of inflamed emotions, malicious hyperbole, and an active compulsion to destroy what standards of living and rules of law we have – flawed, inconsistent, and obtuse as they may seem – it has never been more important in recent memory for us to take in as much honesty as we can. To be honest with ourselves; with our beliefs, our passions, our wants, and even our fears without the subliminal coercions coming from political pundits, social influencers, nagging relatives, fire-and-brimstone zealots, or braggadocious friends or neighbors. If you take in enough of your own honesty; if you take a sobering, calm, and unaffected look at who you want to be in the society you live in, and who you want to give your allegiance, attention, faith, support, and trust to for your sake and those whom you love and respect and even for those people you may never even meet, then your choice is clear.
Put some of that honest tea in an insulated mug and take it with you when you go to vote. It’ll help clear your head, or warm up your resolve if you start to feel the cold winds of change on your back.
You’ll be fine.
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