The presidential debate was such a travesty; there haven’t been many from either side of the political fence who’ve said differently. I felt myself sinking during the debate, yet another downer for the year 2020.
This year has been a constant challenge for us not to feel hopeless or defeated. And here it was again, this time on the bright stage of the presidential debate. I looked for a silver lining, and finding none, looked again at the debate and my feelings.
It was then that I remembered the Buddhist teaching that if there’s nothing we can do about something that’s amiss, we can relax; if there is something we can do, we can do it and relax as well. It was obvious that I could not change the candidates, how they spoke to each other, or change the debate parameters (which I’m sure will occur after that free-for-all). So I could relax at least a bit around the debate itself since there was nothing I could do.
But what could I do? I knew that the presidential candidates- or any 2 people talking with each other- should certainly be able to:
*Listen patiently to what the other person is saying without interruption;
*Be decent with the other person- no matter how much we disagree with what they say;
*Speak our own truth without using words as weapons against the other.
It occurred to me that I could do something: I could use the debate as inspiration to listen patiently to others and speak my truth directly and kindly. So I practiced this using a few interactions with children and teachers at Alaya the morning after the debate. Upon doing this, I re-discovered that, in addition to my wish to be of benefit to the people I conversed with, I personally felt this practice benefitted myself. I slowed down, was more spacious and in the moment, and appreciated the conversations more than my habitual way of interacting.
Given how much the pandemic, wildfires, debates and political climate, and seemingly so much of 2020 seems beyond our control, perhaps we’re left with “Think globally, act locally,” i.e., local as in our immediate situation. But who knows the depth of our impact on those around us. Indeed, who knows how much we can work with our own state of mind, which undoubtedly affects us and those around us? Perhaps by making even a small shift within ourselves, this will at the same time help loosen our stress around what we cannot change.
-Steve
