Almost half of the country watched in disbelief, during this election season, as the dark and hidden soul of America slowly was revealed. All of the fears, the ignorance, the prejudices came out of the secret, hidden places, culminating on November 8 with a total and unapologetic revelation. Here it is. The denied, ignored, unacknowledged undercurrent of pain, hopes and secrets they didn’t want to own and we didn’t want to believe was there. The extremity of the darkness of the presidential candidate gave them voice, modeled permission to live all of it openly, called it all forth. And, they came. Exuberantly. Joyfully. Relieved, after so long in the darkness. Unabashedly, unashamed. Reveling in the freedom of finally giving expression to their hopelessness, their despair, their fears, their anger. Finally, someone was there who was unafraid to say what they thought.
And the rest of us – well, we watched in disbelief. We didn’t want to acknowledge them. Surely, this couldn’t be true. Surely, this was an aberration. Surely, that candidate was an outlier pulling only minimal people after him. Surely, this wasn’t the truth of our country or the direction we would go!
Some of us found the silver lining – now this undercurrent was revealed. Now, once logic, compassion and morality were installed into power, we could begin to both institutionally and individually address this ignorance and fear, raising them up to our higher level of consciousness and understanding. We reassured ourselves that it was only a small percentage of the total electorate who were giving voice to these words and passions of hatred.
But, now, stunned, we see. The primitiveness of our species, right here in the United States, is revealed in all of its lack of the high consciousness and evolution we prided ourselves on.
We’re outted. For ourselves and for the world to see. No more illusions. No more pretending. No hiding the truth inside ourselves. No more disbelief.
This is the current state of evolution of our species. From a scientific or historical perspective, it isn’t wrong or bad – it is just a measure of how far we have come and how far we have yet to go.
When we read history books, with the turn of a page we are spared the anguish of the process as we track the evolution of humanity. We read in a few paragraphs or pages the struggles, the resolutions and the succeeding events that mark our growth and progress as human beings. The speed of reading and distance in time spare us from the pain and suspense our forebears surely felt. This time in history is no different. We are no different. As a species, we have the imperative to learn and grow. We have not arrived at the apex of our development, as much as we might like to comfort ourselves, hoping to spare ourselves the pain of having to go through our experience of evolution and growth by thinking we have already arrived at our full development. We are just taking our turn in history. There is no page to quickly turn to speed us through this process and take us out of the agony of having to live through it.
Raised in the Disney era of clearly defined forces of evil and good, quick resolutions and happy endings, living at the end point of our history books, we are stunned that our species has so far to go. But it does. And it doesn’t mean anything is wrong. We’re just taking our turn at the developmental task of growth and evolution that is the destiny of our species.
The good news? (Yes, there really is good news.) Well, as I’ve said, nothing is wrong. (There’s a difference between not liking something and something being wrong.) Someday people will quickly turn the page on our era of history, only vaguely imagining the torment we are feeling as we live through it. They will turn that page and find the next stage of development our work, now, will inevitably lead to.
It’s not time to hide, to give up, to run, to deny. (I’m hiding under the bed as I type, but I fully intend to come out, soon!) This is where we were put. This is our corner of the world, our part of humanity to work with. This is our American Spring.
It’s time for us to get to work. As life forms, contributing to the evolution of our species is our destiny. This is a task we were each born to do. It’s time for us to step up and reach out to not only support each other, but to help everyone in their evolution past animal fear and greed. It’s time for every one of us to become activists. No more waiting for someone else to do it.
And, it isn’t too hard. Difficult, painful – yes. But not too hard. We can do it. It’s our time.
Jan Harrell, PhD
SeekingSomethingMore.wordpress.com