Democracy

It’s said Barak Obama, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden represent the status quo, old-fashion politics, business as usual in D.C. It’s true! It even has a name: Democracy! It’s civil debate and compromise. It’s respecting the loyal opposition, even when I vehemently disagree with their politics and policies. Democracy is not mean and rude.  It is not taunting, shoving and name-calling like a sixth-grade Bully! Democracy is not saying whatever serves your immediate purpose regardless of truth or fact!

Borrowing on English poet and philosopher John Donne, “No man (no nation, not even America) is an island.” Without the respect and cooperation of other nations we cannot survive. Our American Democracy does not thumb its nose, does not give the finger to the rest of humanity. The most favored people on Earth are duty-bound to do all we can—more than our share—to make life better for all people!

There’s a sense I earned and deserved this free and favored life. I didn’t and I don’t! Those who went before, parents and grandparents centuries back earned it. My responsibility is to preserve and pay it forward! My responsibility is to leave America and every nation on planet Earth more livable and safer for those to come.

With its full share of sins and shortcomings, each American administration, Democrat and Republican, represents Democracy in action. To this is point in time, none was a Trumpian/Putinian Oligarchy.

Comic Relief

Giving voice to uneasy secrets most of us hold, genuine comedy cloaks wisdom as “comic relief.” On the death of funny-man Jerry Stiller, NBC news recalled a quote which should be our Creed for Human Relations and World Peace.  Regarding Anne Meara, his wife for over sixty years—if memory serves—Jerry said, she’s “not hard to live with. You just have to put up with her.”

It’s about patience! Respecting others. Life will be so much easier if we remember Jerry Stiller and just “put up with” them.

Absolute Chaotic Disaster

I vow to disengage from this Trump nonsense, then something happens or someone says something and, like a dumb catfish, I grab the bait.

In a May 8 call to former staffers, President Obama called President Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic “an absolute chaotic disaster.” Responding, Presidential Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany calls “President Trump’s coronavirus response . . . unprecedented and saved American lives.”

I’m reminded that on Feb. 28, after two months’ warnings, President Trump underscored his concern for COVID 19 by famously predicting, “One day it’s like a miracle, it will disappear.” Today, May 10, with 1.3 million COVID 19 cases and 77,000 American lives lost, Trump’s concern and response, Ms McEnany, is indeed and tragically unprecedented!

Now

A time to remember:

Whatever happens I will create no more problems; I will create no more pain for myself.    The Power of Now
   Eckhart Tolle

If we don’t look into hope and fear, seeing a thought arise, seeing the chain reaction that follows, if we don’t train ourselves to sit with that energy without getting snared by the drama, then we are always going to be afraid.
   When Things Fall Apart
   Pema Chodron

Practicing mindfulness I can recognize what is happening in the present without grasping or aversion. I can practice mere recognition of what is going on within me and around me without judgment or reactions. This helps me to keep stability and freedom alive within myself.
Touching the Earth
   Thich Nhat Hanh

The goal of psychoanalysis is to make unconscious process conscious.
Sigmund Freud

Never give up
No matter what is going on
Never give up
Develop the heart
. . .
Be compassionate
Not just to your friends but
to everyone, be compassionate
Work for peace in your heart and in
the world
Work for peace, and I say again
Never give up
His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama