Maybe We All Need To Take A Deep Breath

I really mean it.

Maybe it's just because the past week has been, on the national political scene, an especially tumultuous one.  Maybe it's because, for personal and professional reasons, the beginning of the new year has been a hectic one for me.  Maybe it's just because having D***** T**** in the White House for the past three years plus has made every day of that time period an emotional journey I would just as soon not have, for my sake and everyone else's (even those who voted for him).  Maybe it's some combination of those things.  Maybe it's all of them.

At this point, I really don't care.  Because this was the week that, among other things, was the week that I took some time to take stock of what the T**** years have specifically done to me.

And I came to some pretty upsetting conclusions.

I realized that, to a degree I'd rather not completely reveal, I'd been drawn into the angry emotional world that lives inside of T**** himself, and found myself far too often reacting to statements and events about him and his Administration in the same impulsive, mean-spirited way that must characterize every waking moment of his life.  I'd talk to other people about him in an angry way.  I would use social media to project angry feelings about him.  I've even spent a lot of time in this space allowing my rhetoric to, at times, become a very poor imitation of the speeches that he gives at the campaign rallies he prefers to attend, in lieu of doing the actual work connected with his day job.

And I've noticed other people doing varying degrees of the same thing.  Friends.  Co-workers.  Family members.  Social media contacts.  Even professional journalists, who are expected to demonstrate a measure of restraint in their reporting, and, more often than not, are able to do so.  Except, of course, when it comes to this subject.

Fear has a funny way of doing that.

And fear is D***** T****'s stock in trade.  Fear is the only thing that motivates him.  Fear of not being discussed.  Fear of not being reflexively obeyed.  Fear of not being always the center of attention.  And, perhaps above all, fear of not being able to make others do exactly what he wants, exactly when he wants it.  As a consequence, because fear is the only thing he fully comprehends, fear is the only thing he can use to motivate others.  It's the only environment he understands.  And so, he fills everyone with as much fear as he possibly can.  His family.  His staff.  Everyone within his business and his Administration.

And, ultimately, you and me.

Which is why, more than for any other reason, apart from the brazen illegality of his actions and its threat to the rule of law, is why all of us are experiences levels of stress, despair, depression, anxiety, and even worse emotions, all of which are the by-products of fear.  As much as I hate to seemingly demean this discussion with a "Star Wars" reference, Yoda perhaps said it best:  "Fear leads to hate.  Hatred leads to anger.  Anger leads to suffering."

I think that the combination of the Iowa caucus meltdown, the State of the Union message that turned into a campaign rally (Rush Limbaugh?  The Medal of Freedom?  Seriously?), and the"exoneration" of T**** at the end of his Senate "trial" was finally too much for me, and I had to sit down and re-evaluate how I was dealing with everything.

In the middle of that process, and while catching up on my e-mail, I came across something that gave me some helpful food for thought.  I'm going to invite you to look at it right here.

I reproached myself at first, because it seemed like just another form of "click bait," but the historic preservationist in me couldn't quite resist.  And I'm glad I did.  I was reminded of how much natural beauty existed all across our country, in every state.  And how much of our social and cultural history has been preserved in every state as well.  And how well many of these small towns seemed to function, despite all of the political conflict tearing apart the country as a whole.

At first, I didn't have any other insights other than these from looking at the slide show.  But it was helpful, in that it reminded me of something that can get lost in looking at the world through Twitter.

That we have a country worth saving.  And people who are worth getting to know.  People who could teach all of us many worthwhile things, and who could also learn many worthwhile things from us.  In the process, we could perhaps find ways to bridge the gaps that divide us, and begin to solve some of the problems that now produce screaming instead of solutions.

I'm not advocating dewey-eyed idealism about who we are as a people.  Right now, we're separated from each other by anger to the point at which it's fair to question whether we are one country, or two.  And worse, we have a President whose sole talent is being able to exploit and fuel that anger for his own purposes.

But I am suggesting that we make an effort to disengage from that anger, and the ad hominem arguments and attacks to which it inevitably leads.  To focus on discussing ideas, and, in the process, learn more about each other, and why we differ, as well as to build upon areas where we can find common ground.

This isn't about being "nice" for its own sake.  I'm aware that I'm proposing something that isn't easy, and I'm not naive about the road that will lie ahead for all of us who attempt to stand down from the screaming to try communicating instead.  But the alternative, for all of us, is so much worse.

And there's a practical way to make this political, given the current political popularity of both infrastructure and climate change. One that might transform this county and its politics from an Internet of voices to an Internet of people.

It's this.

I think it should be the moon shot--or one of them--of the 21st century.

And in the meantime, I'll try to do my part to soften my tone and sharpen my thoughts.