Sharon Salzberg, author of Loving Kindness – The Revolutionary Art of Happiness,
tells of having once been assaulted by a stranger while riding in a
pedicab in Calcutta. As the man tried to wrestle her out, the driver
intervened and they were able to escape unharmed. Later, when she told
her venerable meditation teacher about the incident, he exclaimed, “Oh,
Sharon, you should have hit the man over the head with your
umbrella…with loving kindness.”With the astounding results of the just-decided U.S. presidential election, I feel as though I am the pedicab passenger. That modest little vehicle has been my conveyance toward a simpler, more peaceful, loving and generous life, a future of hope and continuing spiritual evolution.
I have believed, for nearly a decade now, that I lived in a nation that, after a decade and a half of profound national insecurity, was at last on a course back to sanity—one that valued diplomacy over war, openness over isolationism, inclusion over paranoia, individual freedom over narrowly-defined “morality,” opportunity over prevention, abundance and generosity over scarcity, vision over hindsight, and hope over fear. This has been a direction I felt true to not only my own values, but to the time-honored values of my country.
But I, and all those standards I hold so dear, have suddenly been assaulted, hijacked by some kissy-lips little punk who, counting on my weakness and complacency, feels he’s entitled to my possessions.
Folks hang their heads and murmur,
if only we'd known and done something.
A CITIZEN OF ALL CREATION
And thus my dilemma: Do I assume the mindset I believe derives from the core of my being, one of tranquility, kindness and emotional detachment from outcomes? Or do I allow myself to fully appreciate and be moved by the reality that, overnight, my homeland is at the beck and call of a monumentally insecure, irrational, ill-prepared charlatan who has promised—and whose admirers expect—that he will dismantle the very framework of values I embrace, and that so many of our ancestors have fought and died for?
As if that weren’t enough, the president-elect’s aggressive denial of most climate scientists’ and world leaders’ calls for urgent action on human-abetted global climate change threatens not just my country, but my planet and every human being on it.
History tells us quite eloquently that despots do exactly what this man is doing. And that, once the true ravages of their misguided power see the light of day, it is most often too late. Folks hang their heads and murmur, if only we’d known and done something when we could.
Is it not my sacred duty to acknowledge the moral outrage that drives heroes to say something, do something?
No one will be well served if I fail
to deter a thieving bully.
So back to the pedicab-and-umbrella metaphor. In the case of our current national crisis, how can I resolve my dilemma? What does smashing the mugger over the head with loving kindness even look like?
That, I’ve decided—after being unable to think about much else at all for the past two weeks—is what I must reconcile. How can I honor both my responsibility as an intelligent, aware—and patriotic—citizen to defend the values upon which my country was founded and has evolved for two and a half centuries, and my duty to all of Creation to inhabit a place of peace and love?
The answer? All I can say right now is that I’m working on it. I aspire to being able to read the story that’s unfolding before our nation’s eyes, but not to become the story, not to let it define who I am. Still, as Salzberg’s guru suggested, no one will be well served if I fail to deter a thieving bully. So, while being as patient with myself and others as I can, I will be eagerly watching for doors of opportunity to appear.
I trust I will find the certainty to take whatever action I am called to pursue, but I must do so only when I’ve also found the generosity of seeing not to act in fear or anger, but in hope and love.
And then I will swing away.
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