Tender Spots Beneath Civic Discord. Humanity is Common Ground.

Our country is in a dark place. We hope that sharing our dismay through social media and community events will lift us over the abyss. We hope a round of elections will spare us seeing the contours of the pit, the guano.

What is this country’s shadow work? Some people believe it is slavery. Some people believe it is the founding principle of manifest destiny. Some think it is the curse of Adam, our “old taint”.  The reason we have ferocious partisan thrashing about is that neither side wants to look at our shadow as something for which to have compassion.

Can conservatives get down on their knees about the Kent State killings of 1970? Can they see the March on Birmingham also and take a day to feel how the self-righteousness of their tribe brought about these dramatic events?

Can moderate liberals look at the lives of farmers and townspeople in red states and spend a day feeling how it might be to live a life that you love (without aid of the New York Times), to experience the disrespect others have for your country life? Could they ask deeply of themselves why those lives are so disgusting to them, when similar lives across the globe would come across as interesting and worth respect?

I believe the enemy is time. We do not have time to share our experiences and wisdom, nor time to give due attention to others’ contribution. We quickly craft a humane response to the global situation as it appears to us. For one, the priority is preservation of prosperity in the business, family, or community in which he finds himself. For another, it is a call to redeem the wider world from injustice and greed.

Both these calls are understandable and compelling. So many of us are aching for win-win solutions.

We consume too quickly. We hear the anger of each other, but not the deep heart. The politicians are simply feeding back to us what they imagine is our compelling motive. Ignore them, for they are a faulty mirror. Hear your own deep call and listen respectfully for the real story behind your opponent’s words.

It is true that many are paralyzed in their ego concept, the tribal identity which has been crafted for them.

Listen to those who seem to be of that tribe, but who still speak from the heart. Then maybe those who want to make the ocean less grotesquely polluted can join with those who will keep their firearms safely locked away from children.

It would be a start. Party at my house.

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