Post-Election Thoughts

Last updated on: November 12, 2016 at 11:36 am by Mark Nepo

Post-Election Thoughts 2016-11-12T11:36:44-05:00 Mark Nepo

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

I was recently in New York City giving a reading at the New York Open Center where I felt compelled to open the evening with the following post election thoughts. It lead to a very honest and touching public conversation with about 100 people about the confusion of where we are as a society after the presidential election. I believe this is a conversation that needs to happen and is happening everywhere whether in private or public. Please pass these thoughts and feelings on, if so moved, and add your own. Being who we are everywhere is the first step in watering the seeds of human decency, to which I remain steadfast and committed.

—Mark Nepo

Post Election Thoughts 2016

I have felt compelled to speak since the election of Donald Trump but every time I try, my heart sinks and I don’t know what to say. I was born in Brooklyn, New York, six years after World War II, after the defeat of Hitler and fascism, six years after the Holocaust, in which I had family perish. As a child, I saw unfathomable images of how the Atomic bomb obliterated Hiroshima. In grade school, we practiced hiding under our desks, as if that would keep us from being incinerated. I came of age in the sixties, part of a hopeful generation who questioned the war in Vietnam. I later saw the Berlin wall come down, and witnessed the first African-American president sworn in on the steps of a White House built by slaves. During my lifetime, there has been a slow, steady awakening of community that has upheld America as the land of the free. Through all this, I have grown to understand that, different as we are in what we believe, there is no they. We are they.

Given this paradox inherent in freedom, I have tried to stay true to what I know while listening to the opposite views of others. But the underpinnings of this election fall below politics, below Democrat or Republican. Because half of us have elected a man whose way in the world is built on fear and hate, whose tolerance for difference is tissue paper thin, whose understanding of strength is based on vengeance.

As I witness the level of racism, sexism, xenophobia, and unchannelled anger that is spilling out of us as a nation, I fear that Donald Trump has poked and stirred the darker angels of our nature. Now we are taking our turn, as civilizations before us, in the ever-present challenge to give in to fear or to empower each other to be brave enough to love, brave enough to discover and accept that we are each other.

For no matter where we come from, no matter how we got here, we all yearn to be seen, heard, and respected. We all long to belong and to be understood as whole and good. We all long to be needed. And all our gifts are needed to contribute to the tapestry of freedom.

So I am afraid today, afraid the noise of hate is drowning out the resilience of love that is always near. I fear that we are tripping into a dark age. If so, then, as medieval monks kept literacy alive during the dark ages in Europe, those of us committed to a life of care are challenged now to keep the literacy of the heart alive.

For all the things we care about, all the endeavors of respect that we treasure, all the humble ways of finding strength in our kindness—all our efforts of heart matter now more than ever. We are at a basic crossroads between deepening the decency in how we care for each other, and the contagion of making anything different from us the enemy. And, as history has shown us, if we don’t recognize ourselves in each other, all is lost.

We must remain open and steadfast in the face of fear and violence. We must never make a principle of what turns us dark. And we must keep voicing the truth of human decency, no matter the brutalities that try to quiet us. Without this commitment to care and truth, we will become as heartless as those now lost in anger.

Most of all, we must pick each other up when we are heavy with despair. For the sun doesn’t stop shining because some of us are blind. Nor will the grace of democracy vanish because some of us are violently afraid to be in the world.

Still, we are they. And the timeless choice between love and fear, individually and as a nation, is not a choice of policy. It is the choice of decency that keeps us human. In the face of this dark disturbance that is upon us, I implore each of us to be kind and truthful, to be a lantern in the dark, and to call out prejudice wherever we see it. In addition to whatever ways we each are called to gather, participate, legislate, or protest, I implore each of us to never stop watering the seeds of human decency.

I implore us to stay devoted to the proposition that when filled with love, we can work as angels here on earth, using our care-filled hands as wings. Never forget that we are more together than alone.

*image courtesy of Shutterstock.

Save

Uncategorized

Previous Post

November 7, 2016

Breaking Surface

Next Post

November 21, 2016 If You Want a True Friend

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category 3i projects current events emotional states Heart in the news Mark's weekly reflections Michele's vlogs poetry Three Intentions happenings Uncategorized writing/books

Select a Month November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz