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Autocracy<\/u>. <\/em>noun. 1.<\/em> Government by a single person having unlimited power; despotism.<\/em><\/p>\n When I visit my friend Dania (not her real name), deep connection is in store. We sit in her kitchen, to an exquisitely prepared meal of homemade soup, salad, and bread with butter, and tea. We join hands for silence, then commence a discussion that ranges from intensely personal to spiritual\/philosophical\/universal. I have called Dania, who is decades older than me, my \u201celder.\u201d But she feels as much a heart-sister as anyone. Though our life origins\u2014birthplace, generations, geographies of residence and formation, and more\u2014are mostly different, we share so much. Our educational backgrounds are similar. We both love books ideas gardens art family. We both treasure our spiritual paths.<\/p>\n So after a long silence between us as Dania traveled, I was eager to visit and hear her wisdom regarding the crises in our country. Dania has a gift for seeing the essence of what\u2019s happening, stating matters plainly. Perhaps her decades of dedicated Buddhist<\/a> practice underlie this gift. What she said last week has been reverberating ever since. As she put it, we are now living in a different country. Our president is breaking things rapidly and nothing seems to be stopping him. It will be some time before we begin to experience the turning. And the turning, when it comes, will be spiritual.<\/em><\/p>\n It was clarifying to hear Dania articulate the truth I know in my heart. And it has led to other thought-clarifications.<\/p>\n The rot at the root of MAGA is spiritual. The slogan itself, \u201cAmerica First,\u201d reveals this. Imagine a full-grown adult saying \u201cMe first; me first!\u201d It is by turns laughable and sad. One imagines a petulant toddler or teenager. But this has become the vaunted rallying cry of the man-children (and some women-children) now at the helm of our country. These billionaires and their wanna-be\u2019s want to take basic services and valued protections away from ordinary Americans to raise funds for a massive tax cut for the wealthy. It is all so simplistic. The reason we know \u201cMe first\/America first\u201d to be immature and misguided is because, in interpersonal terms, we know that people need other people; that cooperation alone brings abundance; that living alone in one\u2019s tower of fancy things where one is surrounded by yes-men, sycophants, and scared people instead of reciprocal love is a recipe for loneliness and emptiness, and a breeding ground for cruelty.<\/p>\n America\u2014like a petulant toddler\u2014will learn relatively quickly that breaking or straining ties with every last ally and partnering with other toddler-nations like Russia, while aiming to set up our own supply-chains where we alone manufacture every necessary widget and grow every food we consume (all the while taking over countries that have resources we need), will be about as productive as stealing all the toys and having no one to play with at the playground. It is no longer fun. It is no longer secure.<\/p>\n But I am afraid this is where we end up when we have determined spirituality is unnecessary. When we have determined that our lives are about amusing and enriching ourselves, either based on secular ideologies like hyper-capitalism or religious expressions pedaling \u201cwhat God can do for you,\u201d we naturally become petulant toddlers all about \u201cme first!\u201d Spirituality (and even atheists can have spirituality), is about nourishing the spirit as an alternative to solely nourishing the material and emotional demands of our egos.<\/p>\n Someday a plurality of people in America will grow sick with our loneliness, hegemony, insecurity, and thin hopes. And I, like Dania, believe our hungering spirits will go looking for paths that lead us back to one another, to community. Back to something bigger than ourselves. Back to modalities that help us transcend ego and our cul-de-sacs of self-anaesthetizing lies.<\/p>\n Where I happen to experience spirit-nourishment is in practices that help me forget myself and my self-referential hungers. This happens when I\u2019m looking into the eyes of one of my cats and petting them; when I\u2019m embracing my husband, daughter or friends; when I\u2019m outdoors noticing seasonal beauty (plum blossoms! daffodils!); when I\u2019m listening to singer-songwriters as I make art; when I\u2019m reading poetry; when I\u2019m serving the cup during Eucharist at my church, or looking into peoples\u2019 eyes as we grasp hands and \u2018pass the peace\u2019; when I\u2019m sitting with Quakers at my husband\u2019s Friends meeting, as I sometimes do\u2014and seeing a community dedicated, in so many ways, to nurturing the spirit\u2019s ability to transcend ego.<\/p>\n Honestly, I believe America is a long way from a collective turning. MAGA-cult adherents I know personally, who should be spiritual people, have been awash for so many years in an ideology of \u201cme first!\u201d that they will need to see the scenario play out before they grow sick of it. For several decades they have been told that the structures of communitarianism (taxes, institutions for the common good, peace and anti-arms treaties, national partnerships, etc.) are for suckers. They believe \u201cmorality\u201d is only personal, never collective, so government should be all but dismantled. It is the height of immaturity, but they cannot see it yet. What will bring about a collective seeing, or a \u201cturning\u201d? Only a starvation of spirit, I\u2019m afraid, that makes people want something more nourishing, more sustaining, than themselves and their wooly ideologies.<\/p>\n How do we survive the wait? I\u2019m reminded of the old protest sign \u201cPeace is the way.\u201d Peace is not just the goal; peace is the way<\/em>. It\u2019s a pithy sign based on the MLK, Jr. quote \u201cPeace is not merely a distant goal that we seek; but a means by which we arrive at that goal.\u201d Similarly, nourishing spirituality and working to live more for others and less for ourselves is not just the way to get to the end goal. It is living as if the goal is already here, and it is the means by which we will reach it.<\/p>\n If you liked this article please leave me a comment below; I am interested in your perspective. To support my writing, please subscribe<\/a> and share with a friend! Wren, winner of a 2022 Independent Publishers Award Bronze Medal<\/a><\/p>\n Winner of the 2022 Independent Publisher Awards Bronze Medal for Regional Fiction; Finalist for the 2022 National Indie Excellence Awards.\u00a0<\/em>(2021) Paperback publication of\u00a0Wren<\/a>\u00a0,\u00a0<\/em>a novel. \u201cInsightful novel tackles questions of parenthood, marriage, and friendship with finesse and empathy \u2026 with striking descriptions of Oregon topography.\u201d \u2014Kirkus Reviews\u00a0<\/em>(2018) Audiobook publication of\u00a0Wren<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Autocracy. noun. 1. Government by a single person having unlimited power; despotism. When I visit my friend Dania (not her real name), deep connection is in store. We sit in her kitchen, to an exquisitely prepared meal of homemade soup, salad, and bread with butter, and tea. We join hands for silence, then commence a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4674,"featured_media":1002,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[21,114,1004,63,1313,1248],"class_list":["post-4393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essay","tag-autocracy","tag-lent","tag-peace","tag-resurrection","tag-social-justice","tag-trump"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Turning<\/h3>\n
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