Spooky

Friends,

The spirit of Halloween and the anxiety around the election both create a current mood of spookiness. I have never really understood why people are so fascinated by the macabre and scary threats of ghosts, skeletons, skulls, and death. Perhaps we need to practice our frights in our imagination and symbolically in order to try to prepare us for the real thing. Which brings me to the election. I don’t know whether I will create or allay your fears, but I do want to offer my current perspective through the lens of both my anxiety and, ultimately, my faith.

I’ve divided my efforts for perspective into three parts: what we know, what we don’t know, and how to create and maintain a faith perspective of trust that can carry us through.

What we know...

• We do know we are a tragically divided nation culturally and politically, and we know that is not likely to change dramatically after the election. We would like to believe the antagonisms and name-calling related to the election will subside or, at least, won’t get worse. 
  
• We know that the two candidates represent diametrically opposed representations of character and political platforms, and one candidate represents values directly antithetical to an aspiration of a democratic government dedicated to serving the common good.
• We know we are living, however, within a democratic system that will allow us the opportunity to vote which will thus provide the nation with an objective calibration of our national mood. We can hope, if not necessarily expect, a refreshed spirit of cooperation and unity will arise. Ideally we know that governance involves compromise, and we have experience in the past that a respectful, reasonable, functional democracy can address serious national issues. 
  

What we don’t know...

• What level of social volatility will follow the election.
• We don’t know, in addition to the presidential election, the outcome of the election for the Senate and House which will also have a major impact on the check and balance system of our Constitutional government. 
• The American public does not know the full dangers of autocratic rule because our nation has never had to survive autocracy. We hope we are not about to find out.
• We don’t know the impact the election will have on our personal and communal lives in the next year or next  four years, especially the lives of those less able to protect themselves from governmental harm if legal and judicial freedoms and protections are eroded. Or perhaps critical reforms of taxation, regulation and accountable government will follow.
  

And here’s my long-term perspective on a response to the anxiety evoked by the most wary of my thoughts and questions. 

Whatever the outcome of the election, creating a major sustainable societal and economic transformation will remain a formidable challenge. It is difficult to imagine that a Trump administration would seriously address issues of climate threats, enormous economic disparity, ending war, and create a course of action that would serve the common good - especially if it threatened self-serving central control. I do believe we can imagine a Harris administration committed to working for the common good, albeit with limited expectations of success. 

When I get especially fearful I am somewhat consoled by remembering historical eras that survived and transformed under the most dire of oppressive control. I am always impressed with the resiliency of people who suffered slavery or the genocide of Indigenous people or the persecution of the Jews under Hitler. This is not to discount or dismiss the survivors’ suffering, but it is a reminder of the profound resiliency of the human spirit. I have a profound faith in that deep resiliency that will always abide in the God-given human spirit that may flicker during oppression but will not be extinguished.

Like many of you, I can become deeply discouraged about how the future is going to unfold for myself, but especially for my grandchildren and all the children of the world. But as a person of prayer and reverence I recently was surprised to myself highlighting the words of the Jesus/Lord’s prayer that “thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” as words of promise and assurance. With God’s blessing we may work to create a legacy "on earth as is in heaven" that attempts to mend the world’s brokenness and seeks justice, mercy, and peace. That there is an ultimate Power, the God of Mystery, Nature and Love, that will have the final say. I will continue to have faith in the ultimate transformative power of God’s grace and love in spite of all that compromises, impedes, and attempts to negate it.

So, yes, this is a spooky, scary and momentous time in our individual lives, our nation and the world. Unfortunately it is not a fantasy or a practice of confronting our fears like the Halloween celebrations. Whatever the results of the elections, and our emotional responses to them, let us be kind and supportive of each other. We need to acknowledge and accept that this is a fearful time for many of us and for many different reasons, but we will get through it all…together...one way or another.

Peace,
Tom