Contemplative Politics

I began writing this blog 2 1/2 years ago...what can only be described as several lifetimes ago, from the perspective of the events that have transpired in my life since May of 2010.   I won't take the time to recount those events, but suffice to say, I never imagined that I would use this space to contemplate politics, or the place that our political perspectives may take on the path of our individual spiritual journeys...

To rightly share my story, I must go back in time to January of 2008, when I, like many Americans, first heard then-candidate Senator Barack Obama speak after his groundbreaking win in the Iowa caucus.  I remember the experience quite vividly, because I was mesmorized by the ideal he seemed to represent.  As I sat in a theater this afternoon watching the Dinesh D'Souza political documentary "2016", I was struck by the fact that much of our political consciousness is defined by what each of us projects upon the candidate of our choice.

You might wonder, "What in the world is she talking about?"  Project on the candidate?  Yes. That.  People vote for a candidate for many reasons, but among those, I believe, is our tendency to project upon candidates that which we wish them to be and represent. 

For many, and I count myself in this group, candidate Barack Obama represented a kind of hope that was needed in 2008...a kind of change in the political process that I still believe was desperately needed.   We were, by then, 7 years out from the tragedy of 9/11, fully 6 years into a series of wars and military interventions that seemed to have no end in sight.  And...for many of us...Democrats, Republicans and Independents alike, we were tired of it all. We truly wanted change, in the best way that you can want it.

I can't help but wonder tonight though, if our projections of a happier, more peaceful world through the Hope and Change campaign of Obama...were just that...projections...rather than reality.

Can any of us, with intellectual honesty, say that the political discourse has become more civil since President Obama took office? More high-minded?  More focused on solving the most substantive issues that face our country?

I heard once, from an entirely non-political speaker, that if you look at the condition of your personal finances, and find that they are in shambles...you will likely find that the other areas of your personal life...physical health, spiritual health, educational health...may be likewise in a mess.  The objectivity of your bank account is quite often a mirror to how well you're managing your life in general. I am certain this is not always the case, because many events collide to create the condition of our finances from year to year.  And yet, the principle is challenging, and in my own experience, it proved to be quite accurate.

Words are different than numbers, particularly in the hands or voice of a skilled communicator.   A skilled communicator can persuade with words....words can be used to paint a picture...any picture really...and they can be used to manipulate and reframe the hearers perception of reality.  But numbers...they just are.   Unless you actually CHANGE the numbers, it's very hard to manipulate what numbers say.

When it comes to numbers, and the fine art of accounting, it's different. 

In less than 70 days, Americans will choose our next President.   I find that I am shocked as I type this...70 days!  We are all busy...school is starting...football season...work...church..."fill in the blank" of whatever you have on your personal life agenda.  Once every 4 years, we make a profound choice about who will lead us as a country.  Have you read anything yet?  Have you been listening? It's time to do our homework, and to be prepared, whatever our individual conviction, to participate in the government that is of the people, for the people, and by the people...

Personally, I believe that we had better get very, very serious about understanding the numbers of our country's financial health.  Debt is a serious thing.  I know.  About ten years ago, mostly of my own doing, I was in such a position of personal debt that I had to seriously contemplate filing for bankruptcy.  For various reasons, many of them flowing from the principles taught to me by my parents, I did not file for bankruptcy.  Instead, I took the advice of financial planners and read books on how to get out of debt...and then I did what they said to do. Slowly, but surely, I retired more than $100,000 in consumer debt as a single, working woman.   I learned a lesson from that experience that changed me forever when it comes to debt - debt is slavery.  When you are in debt, you serve those who you are indebted to.

This principle doesn't just apply to individuals, to couples, and to business owners.  This principle applies to the United States of America.  If we think that our unemployed, our uninsured, our seniors, and our poor will be well served by government leadership that continues to spend money that our country does not have, we are gravely mistaken.  

Financial health may seem a very "unspiritual" consideration when you choose who to vote for on November 6, 2012, but the more I contemplate the notion of the United States as a nation enslaved to a seemingly insurmountable debt that grows daily at an astronomical rate of speed, the more I realize how very spiritual it is to look at the numbers.   As I write this tonight, the debt of the U.S. government is just under $16 trillion...I wanted to paste a copy of the debt clock to this blog, but the numbers are moving so fast, you cannot paste a picture of it.  The numbers just continue to move upward at a staggeringly fast pace.  And the $16 trillion...what does it really tell us? It tells us that our country has become enslaved...and none of us really understand what that enslavement might ultimately mean for us as individuals, but we better find it within ourselves to care what it means.  And to change it.

I will leave you with this - since 2007, Americans have lost more than 40% of their accumulated wealth - across the board.  This is by far the greatest loss of wealth among the people of our country since The Great Depression.   Where are we headed as a country?  And is that where we want to go?