NOTE: What follows is some of my rather scattered processing this morning. It’s nothing like the beauty of Howard Zinn’s quote below, but I hope it’s helpful. (And if you are coming from a different perspective than I am, please know I don’t mean to be hurtful. We don’t need more hurt right now.) With love, Ian
When someone sees their marriage fail or loses a job that was important to them, they often feel a loss of identity. Something that felt like part of them, no longer does. This morning, amid the many things running through my heart and mind, what I’m most fundamentally dealing with, I think, is that…a loss of identity.
In the coming days, much of the discussion will be about what Trump and Harris did and did not do right. But elections are not just about the candidates, they’re about us. They’re a reflection of who, We the People, are.
And what happened yesterday made clear to me that who we, as Americans, are, at this point in time, is not who I thought we were. And therefore, something of who I thought I was, as an American, feels lost.
When we lose a significant aspect of our identity, we heal by coming to understand that the thing lost (a job, a spouse) is not really who we most fundamentally are. The thing lost was precious to us and we must grieve it. But we can still be fundamentally whole and intact without it. Spiritually speaking, this is a process of returning to our deeper identity in God/Spirit/Love. It is remembering that our soul is untouched and untouchable by anything external.
Today, for me, this is the work. I am feeling a loss of identity. Not my identity as an American. Nor my faith in what this country stands for or can be. But I must accept that we have a longer way to go than I hoped. Maybe much longer.
So, I will heed the pull to go inward. It’s time to remind myself that who I most fundamentally am is not defined by politics or country, but by the loving Spirit that created me. It’s time to be held by that deeper, wider, eternal perspective so I can hold my country and my fellow citizens with love and not bitterness…so I can come back out into the world with the strength and faith to do my small part in shaping this country I love into the country I know it can be…knowing that, “to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory."
"To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.
What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.
And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory."
-Howard Zinn (To be Hopeful in Bad Times - Compassionate Communication)
Very well said, Ian. I can relate to what you are feeling as well.
Everyone wants to change the world but few have the courage to change themselves.