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Marisa Bartolucci's avatar

Here I am again, she who never comments on the articles/blogs she reads. But as has been said ad nauseam: "these are unprecedented times." And once again I am commenting due to another synchronicity. This afternoon, I was taking a walk with my wise and delightful canine divinity "Krishna" down a bucolic road on Rhode Island's Farm Coast where I live and in my head, I was yelling at my 85-year-old,Trump-supporting farmer/neighbor Bill about what a democracy-destroying stupid sucker he was! And then I stopped myself, because my ego-exhilarating tirade was profound proof of just how far I was from being truly "enlightened." While anger is a legitimate temporary emotion, sustained hatred is seriously deleterious not only to the level of one's consciousness, but also to one's immune system, not to mention the social system as a whole. Plus, I actually LOVE Bill, even though politically he is an idiot, and has refused to listen to any of my political and personal arguments, which is shocking as I have a degree in philosophy from Yale! LOL (Heidegger one of my favorite philosophers was a NAZI and Sartre was an apologist for Stalin. So much for egg heads!) As a former New Yorker, I have told him I know people who knew this Queens-born fuhrer back in the day when he was just "The Donald." He was despicable then, too, but in a more innocuous, dworky way.

Growing up I always wondered what it would be like to have lived in Germany in the late 1930s and detested the Nazis, who may have been your friends and family. And now, here I am in a similar situation. If there is a spark of the divine in all of us, however, can we really settle into hating those we deeply disagree with? If the universe, as revealed by the current configuration of the planets, has ordained us to experience another four years of a monster as president is focusing on hating him going to improve the situation? That's not what Martin Luther King did. Or Gandhi. Or even, so recently and tragically, Alexei Navalny. They all encouraged vigorous, peaceful, courageous ways to change the political status quo, but not by focusing on hatred. In the case of my buddy Bill, he is, ironically, a very good neighbor with a big heart and a strong sense of decency. He has been mislead because of the limitations of his education, experience, and his love of NewsMax and Fox. While his flawed beliefs could lead him to do evil things, they haven't yet. Beyond the fact that he voted for a tyrant, which was his democratic right.

As Tom Paine once said, "these are the times that try mens' souls." And I believe we in the opposition are being required by the universe to rise to a higher level of consciousness in dealing with this godawful situation. We are not meant to fancy ourselves as "the great black one," but to bow before its truly divine and awesome wrath as it annihilates the world we knew. And the whole point of Mahākāla is he shows no mercy. If we believe ourselves to be spiritual, to be "good," then we must steer toward the light no matter what as this new world is born. That, as I see it, is our karma and our dharma as humans living now. And it is clearly going to be hell!

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MZ JANE's avatar

Why they have to make a big noise about the money instead of just going away and enjoying it --- I don't think money is all that much fun after a while. If you have a pair of shoes that cost $5,000, don't you kind of have to make everyone look at your shoes with envy? Jealousy? Hate, even? What's the point of paying $5,000 for a pair of Jimmy Choos if no one else is jealous? Just sayin.'

Love you, as always . . .

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