By Rev. Glenn Neil Stocking
Election Day is fast approaching and the rhetoric is ramping up. Every candidate and every issue being decided is flawed in some way. There has never been nor will there ever be a pure uncontaminated choice. Voters hoping to see a clear path illuminated by celestial beacons and a chorus of angles need to get comfortable with disappointment.
Politics is a reflection of our everyday lives. No issue stands alone isolated from the thousands of variables that factor into our decision processes. We want to conserve oil by driving less, but the soccer game ends at six and the kids need to get home to complete their science project so we drop them off only to drive back to the civic center for an important Council meeting. Our candidate of choice has a checkered past, but the opponent is a stuffed shirt for everything counter to our beliefs.
Do we stay home in frustration declaring the end of civilization is at hand or do we do the best we can with what we have to work with and stay alert for course corrections down range? Freedom includes not only the right but the responsibility to change our minds when new information emerges. Freedom cannot include the choice to remain unchanged, for that choice is self-imprisonment, the opposite of freedom.
Political choices become clearer when a few simple truths are observed. Listen to the arguments and ask: is this argument presenting verifiable facts that are pertinent to the question, or is it appealing to some perceived fear? If it is the former, how important are those facts to the big picture?
If a candidate for County Comptroller has been convicted of embezzlement; that might be important. If the same candidate has an issue with maintaining healthy body weight, it hardly bears the same significance unless your county’s taxes are paid in Twinkies. Fear is a powerful motivator and influencer of decisions, but seldom supported by facts.
Suggesting the candidate above lives a lavish lifestyle in spite of his company’s financial woes evokes a fear of dishonesty, but no facts. Has the company done well in the past allowing the principles to divest past compensation in wise investments? Does the company produce a product no longer in demand? Could the company be doing better or is it reflecting circumstances beyond its control? A case in point is the buggy whip manufacturer who invested in Ford Motor Company before closing his doors forever. The buggy whip employees may have been left out in the cold, but through no criminal act of their employer.
We frequently empower our fears when making life choices. It is a mistake. Fear is believing a false thing to be true. It is false because it has not happened, it is a projection of a possible future however unlikely. We accept a life partner because we are afraid we will die alone. Really? What are the odds that if we move on from our current arrangement that we will never find another circumstance with better experiences? It is a crowded planet, any soul unhappy alone has a target rich environment to explore for a solution.
Appealing to our fears is a proven campaign tool but one we all need to be wary of. There is no value to it. It builds walls that block the light of truth. It diverts our focus from the fear monger’s agenda. Look at the values the candidates support. Look past what they say they have done and look closely at what they have done.
Are their decisions helping to raise the tide or are they dragging an anchor? Are they claiming to help while stripping away rights and social safety nets? Are they moving human evolution forward or clinging desperately to an imagined “better time?” Are they building better prisons or setting free our souls to grow closer to our Spiritual Truth?
The barriers we erect for ourselves, the confines of our judgments are restrictions rather than protections. The outside always finds a way in. The walls only trap us inside and limit our maneuvering room.
It is the same in our lives as in politics. When we shut people out by our judgments we lose the value of their contributions, the lessons they bare. When we retard evolution by clinging to our past, our story, we deny ourselves the opportunity to create a better tomorrow. When we act to maintain our own power at the cost of other’s empowerment we deny both. When we succumb to fear we enable others to dictate our experiences and perpetuate stagnation.
In our lives there is a clear path illuminated by celestial beacons and lined by choirs of angles; it is revealed to us when we brush away the webs of lies and thickets of fear we build through our inattention to Truth. Politics may be a rougher row to hoe, but the same tools come into play.
If the path is unclear, change directions. If government is misdirected, realign it. If your values require force and fear to maintain, let them go. Spiritual values stand on their own without an army or police force to bolster them. Spiritual values are the natural state or existence, the light dispersing the shadow. Shatter the walls and let your light shine.
Learn more about Spiritual Truth and self-empowerment at a Center for Spiritual Living in your community or on line starting at CSL.org or CSLFTL.org.