This morning I was feeling some mixture of anger, disgust, depression, and hopelessness about the direction the McCain campaign is taking and what it might mean for the election. Just had a stern talk with myself, and did some contemplating and this is what came up:
The forces of darkness (or ignorance, whatever you want to call it) are always strong and always play dirty. That's just the world as it is. We need to keep our eye on the long term and not lose heart or strength when there are setbacks. We might or might not win this one. But there is a longer battle for the good of humanity.
Think of Martin Luther King Jr, or factory organizers who protested horrible conditions, or feminists who fought for the vote, or Nelson Mandela, or anyone else who tries to change what is wrong. If those people had let all their energy get completely sucked away by the dirty tactics of their opponents, we'd be a lot further behind than we are. People who care the most suck it up, keep up the fight, keep their equilibrium, and keep their eyes on the long haul. If our true goal is change (and not feeling superior, or feeling good, or having an excuse to act aggressively, or whatever) then we need to keep up the quiet steady fight.
We all have our contribution that we can make to improving the lot of the world. I'm not an American so I can't vote for Obama or donate. I have some volunteer work I do (teaching meditation and awareness work) that I hope contributes to the compassion, wisdom and clarity over the long term. But who knows -- we can only each do our best and cross our fingers and take comfort from the shared effort.
So, I feel the possibility for all the energy to get sucked out of us by the unfair, dirty, cynical way that they fight -- but today I feel determined to be a force for good instead of succumbing to that temptation to deflate. Instead of passive worry and resignation, that could be our response -- more determination that the forces of ignorance don't win -- putting our light and my strength out there where it can help. Donate, make calls, and in our lives do whatever else we do that makes the world a better place in the long run.
I know there are many of you who are already able to keep up the good work in the face of all this cynical manipulation. I wrote this for those, like me, that need to be reminded...
It's something to contemplate -- how could we take that disgust and anger and channel the energy into the determination to contribute something good?