In the “Color Purple” when Celie escaped the bonds of marriage to the abusive “Mister,” she delivers the line, “everything you done to me, already done to you.”
We’ve all heard versions of it. “What goes around comes around.”
In Buddhism, it shows up a bit differently. In Buddhism, it is part of learning to detach. Instead of feeling any need to control a situation, it is best to observe it and let it be exactly as it will be. Our only obligation is to tend our personal situations and stay focused on our peace.
After the election has left many of us feeling gutted that our countrymen chose meanness and cruelty, these types of wisdom can allow us the space to understand a few things.
Not everyone that voted for Donald Trump likes Donald Trump. Not everyone who voted for him cares about anything more than the fact that gas is high and their grocery bill is too big. For some, it really is that simple.
For those of us who are more in tune with the political implications of his returning to the White House, we worry that the next four years are going to bring deeply hard times for our nation, and we worry about our own suffering, and that of those we love.
We know that the policies he’s touted, tariffs and defluoridation of our water will bring about higher prices and higher dental bills.
We know that Herschel Walker, an ex-football player with suspected brain damage, and a dissociative identity disorder (multiple personality disorder) shouldn’t be working on a defense shield, and that billionaire fool Elon Musk shouldn’t be anywhere near the economy, and as he’s already said, Americans should brace for economic hardship. Brain-worm, dead bear dumping quack Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. should be nowhere near our Food and Drug Administration or health. He’s already planning to eliminate entire departments. Can you imagine going back to the years before food regulation? Upton Sinclair wrote, “The Jungle” for a reason, and that book was a catalyst for the formation of the FDA but we’ve forgotten our history.
These are obvious wrongs. But even as we know they are wrong, the choice has been made for America to walk this path. It is out of our control.
Panic doesn’t serve us. Tears are fine but at some point they run dry. Anger is poison to our systems but can certainly be fuel.
Looking back at the wisdoms of Miss Celie, and of Buddhism, we don’t need to try and control something that is absolutely out of our control. We need to be observant…
And ready.
We need to work quietly. Plan together and keep ourselves motivated. We need to develop and understand lines of mutual aid, and learn to truly organize ourselves in ways that we perhaps haven’t thought of before.
What we don’t need to do is to argue with people who aren’t going to change, and we don’t need to waste too much energy being sad about what is done. We’ve got work to do in our own gardens.
Here’s an example. Social media sites like Twitter (X), and Facebook depend on its users’ eyes for advertising dollars to be paid. How do we disrupt those dollars?
You know the answer.
These dollars can be disrupted on rolling bases without even having to leave the platforms, though leaving might improve everyone’s general mental health.
The point is, we don’t have to affect the outcome of the election. It’s already been done and every expectation that those who voted for Trump have to isolate and hoard, to discriminate and despise will be done for them as well.
This is a hell they planned for everyone around them while standing in the middle with no way out.
Understand it, Observe it, and tend your garden.
Pema Chödrön has written extensively about this. We can move toward difficult things and come out on the other side better humans.
If we look at world history, we know things can get terrible and ugly, but we know this because of those who survived.
We are going to survive this.
This article appears in Nov 4-19, 2024.
