eThoughts : Purgatorio and Presidential Elections

I do not like the politics of hate, or of dislike, or of ego-epics. When hate is so generalized, it cannot serve the truth, it can only be self-serving. Is there any religious group that is unilaterally evil? Is there any political party that is unilaterally evil? And so on. Generalities are fine in some instances, I do not need to know what kind of upbringing a rattlesnake had, it is a rattlesnake. But this does not mean that I have to set about exterminating rattlesnakes, even if I might have to relocate the occasional one I find on my property.

Christians or Muslims or Mormons or whatever religion are not, as a group, the enemy, though there are many that are about as stuck as a Purgatorian can be. Skin color is not a sign of truncated evolutionary advancement, or of elevated advancement. Gender is not an end-all or be-all sign of some consistent manifestation. Some woman have bigger balls than some men and some men are a boatload more sensitive than some women. Liberals or conservatives do not represent the cutting edge of political reform any more than they represent an edge of a cliff.

We are not helping when what we do condemns others by our lack of a broader or narrower view. For instance, accelerating slowly from a stop light is one way to reduce our carbon footprint and to reduce our foreign dependency on oil, but going so slowly from a stop light as to keep three other cars from making it through, causing them to sit and idle some more, doesn’t reduce the overall footprint, even if it saves the slow-starting individual some fuel. It is not the breadth or narrowness in itself that is the issue, but the context in which we apply our view.

This presidential election especially, is about the context in which we apply our actions. History can repeat itself when we are stuck in history, but it cannot catch up if to us if we know the passageways to different and more relevant “futures” (I prefer the terms bigger or smaller nows as opposed to time delineations). Most of us want to help and to be helped, but this creating enemies is just plain insane. And the amount of outright garbage that circulates about this candidate or that one, yet is embraced like a gold standard, is a testament to our inability to keep the filing straight.

If we want to fight the good fight, it is not usually with others, it is mostly with ourselves. We can have our say and we can love, but neither words nor love is enough. We must be those words and that love. And being those two potentially beautiful things does not require that others embrace it. We do not say to be heard, we say because we cannot be silent. We do not love to get, we love because we cannot do otherwise. Purgatorians have an agenda that is about being recognized for their sacrifice at worst, their struggle at best. Paradisians have an agenda to help if they can and to romp because Paradiso is lovely and full of wonder that invites play.

During this presidential election year, it seems to me we might consider paying attention to finding and creating opportunities for moving freely, rather than finding excuses. If Americans want to set a leadership standard, not that is or should be our prime directive, we could say no more to making messes and move beyond the game we helped to create, the one that still has us trapped.

Devils may be out there all right, but, as Purgatorians, our job is to make sure we are not one of them, nor are we feeding them. And let’s remember that helping does not mean enslavement. As I said in the previous “chapter,” let’s do everything we can, but let’s not get stuck, no matter what agonies we hear demanding that we stay and give up our passports because others suffer. We can give a person or a group some help sometimes, but it is not helpful to become ensnared in their epic journeys when they are bent making everyone a part of their Inferno or Purgatorio. After all, if we’re going to have a standard, even if we’re not yet there, it might behoove us to remember that Paradisians need no such agonies, they are not inclined to bemoan the beauty of their environs just because others eschew such beauty.

Hey, does anyone feel like eschewing agony?