Here in the U.S., one of the stranger things in American history occurred this past November: the election of Donald Trump as the next President of the U.S.
I say strange on a number of accounts: because Trump is an odd and peculiar character, and because his election took a confluence of events to line up.
On one level, Trump is a bundle of contradictions: a billionaire born with a silver spoon in his mouth who appeals to populist values; a man who espoused hate during the campaign and then started voicing some conciliatory words after the election; and a narcissistic megalomaniac who wants to be seen as doing great things for all Americans.
And on the other hand, Trump is consistent in his behavior and temperament: erratic, mercurial, a pathological liar, and spiteful.
He is a complicated package and difficult to read, because he is not an ideologue. Instead, he is someone who stands for just one thing: himself. It’s all about him.
Many politicians will speak out of both sides of their mouth and say things to appease both sides of the spectrum. Trump does not. He says what’s on his mind, for better or worse – to his followers, that may be his greatest endearing factor.
Could there be a bit of Schroedinger’s Cat to Donald Trump? Schroedinger’s Cat was both alive and dead at the same time. To Erwin Schroedinger, who proposed the dead and alive cat, it demonstrated a central tenet in quantum physics: all possibilities occur, at the same time. Could Donald Trump, who appears to be a blank slate with no specific ideology, be an animal in a quantum physics reality?
He is an animal in some reality, so perhaps it’s a quantum physics reality in which he finds his habitat.
Recently, I flew to Istanbul, Turkey from JFK airport in New York. I parked my car at an off-site parking lot and shuttled to the airport. During the ride, I engaged in a conversation with the African-American driver of the shuttle about the election, who told me that he was an “Obama man.” Yet, he wasn’t upset or angry about Trump’s election, as he felt like Trump would shake things up. I didn’t ask him who he voted for, and my guess is he may not have voted at all.
Whereas a lot of Americans (and the world) were upset by Trump’s election, the shuttle driver was at peace with it, with not a care in the world. Perhaps in his thinking, Trump might do some good, or he might do some bad, or perhaps he would do both. But regardless, as the shuttle driver voiced, Trump would shake things up – a belief held by many Americans who voted for Trump.
So this peculiar cat named Donald Trump may be alive and dead at the same time, if he is a quantum physics creation. But he is not the only one of that ilk. We are all quantum physics creations, every single one of us. And as such, we all are part of a universe, or as quantum physics calls it, a multiverse, in which all possibilities can occur, at the same time. In this mulitverse, Donald Trump is president, and he is not. Hillary Clinton is president, and she is not. Bernie Sanders is president, and he is not. Green Party candidate Jill Stein is president, and she is not. And you are president, and you are not.
And in this multiverse, climate change will destroy the planet, and it will not. And strife and war will decimate the planet, and it will not.
Quantum physics will be the first to argue that although we live in a multiverse, we also live in a relative world – the world that obeys the laws of classical physics – and in this world Donald Trump is going to be president, climate change is a real threat, and the world is besieged by strife and warfare.
And as much as it would be pleasant, for those upset that Trump is going to be president, to live in the multiverse in which Trump is not president, it is an inescapable fact, in our relative world.
We live in a relative world in which there is this one reality. Yet underlying our relative world is the quantum world of the multiverse of all possibilities. But you can’t live in an escapist fantasy and pretend things aren’t happening. At the same time, you can dream and position your mind’s eye, and see the world your heart knows is possible. That world exists in the multiverse, and in our relative reality.
Since we are quantum beings, in the same way that Donald Trump is, we too have the same power as Donald Trump. The world we want to live in is at our fingertips. This is a more humane, just, compassionate, holistic, sustainable, regenerative and enlightened world. No one can take away our power to create this world. The world we want to live in is the world we will live in.
Crises come and crises go, and yet the world we want, the world our hearts know is possible, is coming along.
Ultimately, you have the power to change your life and change the world. It’s easy to get complacent when things are going well. But complacency can breed smugness, and when things don’t go well, smugness can turn inside out and become anger, upset that it didn’t get its way.
Anger is okay if it helps you find your power. But if it thrusts your actions to where you are raging against the machine and fighting anger with anger, that’s not okay.
Instead, you have to take a different approach. Take your power and with your quantum mind, see where you want to take yourself and the world, and then go in that direction.
Donald Trump is real and you may not like it. Donald Trump is also Schroedinger’s Cat – and so are you. We are all curious and creative creatures who do unpredictable things. It is up to you to move your catness in curious and creative ways towards a world that aligns with your vision.
Eastern thought talks of the harmony of opposites, and that these opposites are not on extreme ends of a pole but on varying shades of a spectrum. This harmony of opposites is another way of understanding Schroedinger’s Cat. The cat harmonizes the opposite realms of being dead and alive, all at the same time.
We may never see a dead and alive cat walking around, but we can harmonize opposites at all times. Harmony is where we find our power, and from there, we create the world our hearts know is possible.
The power within that emanates from the harmony of opposites will continue to evolve in new and creative ways. It will allow you to innovate a new and more enlightened future that brings more light unto the world.
The quantum physics of Donald Trump tell us this: no matter what he does, good and/or bad, we are moving along on the continuum to evolve our consciousness to greater heights. No matter how long Trump sticks around, the future is going to progress forward in new and enlightened ways. And you have the power not only to be a part of this new future, but to be a key to propelling it forward.