Merry Christmas!

That’s my main message, only read on if you have some time to ponder with me…

Reason for the Season?

I sat working during the morning over the weekend, listening to Jewel’s Christmas album, Joy a Holiday Collection (a favorite of mine next to Neil Diamond’s), and it struck me how little President Trump and his Administration embodies neither joy nor “the Reason for the Season.” From Joy to the World, to “God is watching us…”(the song “From a Distance”), to “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”, to “in the end, only kindness matters…” (the song “Hands”), you listen to the lyrics and it’s obvious the projected Christian faith of the Administration more often fails the Spirit of these songs and the Season.

I’m not religiously Christian, but I do think there is great spiritual value and inspiration in Christ’s unadulterated messages. There are many “Reasons for the Season,” I teach my daughter about the core many of them. From the origins in Roman and Greek mythology, to the “pagan” rites of Winter Solstice recognizing that warmth and the bounty of harvest will return, to the honor of Hanukkah and the how humanity can fail in self-persecution and be reborn in community, to how the Germans so charmingly improved tree decorating, to how faith in the birth of Christ adopted the Season and Spirit. Because kids can understand it all and all of that matters in what makes the Reason as much as the Spirit of the Season.

The Christians and others that voted for and support this Administration made a “Faustian” bargain. It’s been done before as we continue to fuel war and suffering with our often unwitting/willing support of broken systems and greed. And, yes the Obama administration and predecessors were part of this cycle of support as well. Yet, this time it feels more poignant as we see more intense resistance to societal and cultural shiftings give rise to more intense cruelty and societal divisiveness. Some have suggested it’s part of the path of grieving inevitable change and facing truth – the stage of bargaining as they slowly grieve the truth of an America that never was. This is the spiritual foley of a ends-justifies-the-means bargain, where one justifies Trump and his Administration as tools to manage their grasping desire and resistance to change, “God, Trump is your tool, guide him.” Right? Now we’re definitely not to blame for any of the cruelties associated with what’s necessary for having it our way.

Over the last few days I got into a political exchange with a old highschool friend, one of his responses started with “I can care less.” Isn’t that the core of our issues as we evolve as a species? Caring less for the other…

I’m by no means perfect and have committed transgressions in my life. I’m sure I’ll commit more as I display my own ignorances. But I want to care more, not less. And I think we need to reflect that in our circles of community and how they then effect our greater role in the societies we are part of.

I care more. I care more for my future, my daughter’s future, my friends’ and family’s, my community’s – strangers and acquaintances alike – I care more for America, for Humanity, and the World. I care more for people than corporations, for the environment that is our current home than for the (necessary) woes in the struggle to shift to new and better technologies, I care more for women’s bodily freedom than archaic beliefs, for ensuring access to health care for all – including those with crappy genes, unprivileged financial challenges due to birth circumstances , and even to a degree for those who’ve made poor decisions (because we all have, right?).

We can claim we care more and that’s why we defend the Administration, “American” values, or defend against the invasion of the other (whatever that can look like). But if that defense is rooted in philosophy and policy that harms others and deprives them of freedom and liberty, supports technologies that harm our home, puts profit and corporate success over people and sustainable community prosperity, we’re definitely not living the Reason for the Season.

Christian pastor, writer and activist, John Pavlovitz, nails this in his recent blog – the ego-driven fear-based “joy” found in cruelty to others.

There will always be “darkness” in humanity, and to some degree there needs to be. Encountering and facing that darkness honestly is what puts value in striving to be better. We have to shine a perspective-opening light on the innocently ignorant, those that can care more, if they can shift away from bias that would perpetuate ignorance and harm others. I’m not sure what that looks like for every case, and it’s not about making them conform to my world views, but I want to care more and try to resolve the ignorant and unnecessary conflicts to better engage in the necessary ones.

If American, be proud of America, but recognize it was never the greatest. America has done great things and been an inspiration for the world – and it has committed great atrocities and continues to do so, at home and abroad. Be proud of your religion, but recognize all the big religions have also committed atrocities in their faith’s name (little note: Buddhism is generally seen as a peaceful faith, and Japan was significantly Buddhist in WWII). I’m philosophically, not religiously, Taoist.

I’m not a theologian, and recognize there is a good deal to ponder and expand on in our endless struggle to be human; but I think it’s obvious if we take Christ’s words unadulterated, or the core tenets of Judaism, Buddhism, Islam etc., without the imposed twists of harmful bias, the Reason for the Season is all the time, every moment of every day. Like the Golden Rule, that’s attempting to live in the Tao.

So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. ~Matthew 7:12 ESV

And a Happy New Year!

QT

Author’s note: Earlier post for my take on the Golden Rule and Life. For philosophical pondering on the complexity of application of the Golden Rule.