CHAPTER 9:
TO BEGIN AGAIN: THE CHOICE BEFORE US
People think politics is so ugly, and part of it is. But there is something else there too, when we allow it to unfold—something noble and meaningful and good. As someone who has been speaking to audiences regularly for thirty-five years, I have seen something wonderful happen when people sit together in a room and consider the most significant questions about their common existence.
My father was a lawyer, and he always said that you should speak to the smartest person on the jury. I have had the good fortune in my career to see people at their best—not necessarily when they were at their happiest, but when they were at their deepest and most real. Whether counseling a single person or a couple or talking to a large audience, I have been with people in that place—everyone knows it, we’ve all been there—where life is serious and hushed and true, even when painful. We should participate in politics with the same level of consciousness we bring to intimate love and therapy, parenting, and all of our most important and meaningful pursuits. We should bring all of ourselves to politics. We should bring our hearts and minds and deepest dedication to something bigger than ourselves. Politics is very, very serious business in a country as big and powerful as ours; when we get it right, it can be a beautiful thing, but when we get it wrong, it can be a terrible thing. And we are all responsible for that. With every election, with every campaign, we are deciding something extremely important. We are deciding what is possibly the fate of millions, the fate of the earth, even perhaps the fate of humanity. If that is not a sacred charge, I cannot imagine what is.
Americans are a good and decent people, no different from people anywhere else. Although fear and bigotry have been harnessed for political purposes, we have love and decency we can harness too. But first we must find and harness them within ourselves. We all have to look at ourselves and check our judgments at the door. A nonviolent revolution begins with facing, and surrendering, the violence within ourselves.
What’s going to save this country is a massive revival of spirit among the American people.
I’ve seen how the energy in a room can change profoundly when we drop into our hearts for a meaningful, sober, sincere conversation about things that matter most. The political atmosphere shifts when the spiritual atmosphere shifts, and that is as true among the masses as it is in a small room. I have witnessed and experienced what happens when love has joined two people’s hearts together. I have also witnessed and experienced what happens when love has joined the hearts of two thousand.
That is the kind of social movement that America needs now; not a community of hate but a community of love. All the great social justice movements in America’s history have been born out of religious and spiritual communities, because that is who takes love most seriously. We should address social, political, and economic issues from the highest level of consciousness. For if you know how to heal one heart, then you’re the one who knows how to heal the world.
A RENEWING OF THE MIND
Those who recognize the effects of the invisible realm are not antiestablishment; they are forming what is in essence a new establishment, a much-needed correction to the overly materialized focus of the twentieth century. The significance of the founding of the United States was itself metaphysical: the declaration of a radical new possibility for the human race, a philosophical as much as a political revolution to overthrow the chains that bind. Never yet fully attained or embodied, the American Dream remains the light upon our path—our mission to ensure that all citizens, regardless of race, creed, or religion, be allowed the material means of self-actualization. This radical commitment to human possibility must be thrown down like a gauntlet in the face of oppression, in any form, at any time, and by every generation. The last thing we need to do is whine about the fact that other generations didn’t complete the task; it is every generation’s job to carry it forward, to build on the success of those who came before, and to disrupt any patterns of failure we’ve inherited. We need to emotionally recommit ourselves to the sacred charge we’ve been handed, not only for ourselves but for all the world.
Strong forces, both in the mind and in the world, would pull us down into the mire of despair. But equally strong, even stronger forces compel us to rise up. That is true for us as individuals, and true for us as a country. We must clean up the past and make way for new beginnings.
Jim Forbes, the former senior minister at Riverside Church in New York and a friend and mentor, once pointed out to me that the “end days” are not just times of “wars and rumors of war”—they are also times of “signs and wonders.” If these are the end times, they are also wondrous times. And perhaps what is ending is what needs to end, so something miraculous can now be born. For where there is love, there are always miracles. It is ours to choose, and the time to choose is now. The choice lies in what we choose to express, what we choose to foster, what we choose to embrace, and what we choose to commit to.
It is time to make the choice for love.
Love is not passive; it is active in the world. And there is much to be done. In the words of Dr. King, “Those who love peace must learn to organize as effectively as those who love war. . . . When evil men plot, good men must plan. When evil men burn and bomb, good men must build and bind. When evil men shout ugly words of hatred, good men must commit themselves to the glories of love.
Ah yes, to commit ourselves to the glories of love. We’re a nation that has become more concerned with being rich than with being good, more concerned with getting more than with being more, more concerned with what happens on the outside than with what happens on the inside. And it is killing us. Human beings were created to love each other, not to hate each other; we were created as brothers and sisters, not as enemies; and we were created to be reverent, not to be too cool to care.
We must resist the temptation to intellectual and emotional shallowness that defines our popular culture today. We need to disavow the chronic silliness that has us playing at life like children rather than tending to life as genuine, powerful, responsible men and women. We need reverence toward each other, toward the children of the world, and toward the planet itself. We need reconciliation with the God of our understanding, and radical forgiveness toward each other. We need to look at ourselves and ask how we can do better, devote ourselves to our country and to our children’s children, to rise up from the ashes of our self-preoccupation. We need desperately to evolve from “me” to “we.” Only then will our country rise—when we rise first.
Democracy gives us rights, but it also gives us responsibilities, not just to receive the blessings of liberty but to tend to them in our time and bequeath them to our children. This is not a job for someone else. It’s a job for each of us. We the people are the only true guardians of democracy. We have a much greater purpose on earth than to just get what we want. That has always been America’s greatness: that we stood for something higher than ourselves and strove for something higher than ourselves. Until we retrieve that greatness, we will continue to go down. But as soon as we do retrieve it, we will miraculously rise up again. For on the level of spirit we have wings.
THE POWER OF LOVE
One evening I was sitting in a hotel room in Charlottesville, Virginia, having given a talk at a church there earlier in the day. I noticed that the Mr. Rogers movie Won’t You Be My Neighbor? was available on the room’s TV, and having heard several people mention it, I turned it on. By the end of the movie, I was sitting on the edge of my bed with tears flowing down my cheeks. Here, in a city that had been beset by an incident of American hate, I’d seen a movie that was a testament to American love.
Interestingly enough, I then turned on the local news—which I used to skip over when I went to a town until I realized that that’s where you see some of the best news ever: the good news! It’s where you see what real people do to make their lives and their communities better, from volunteer-run hunger programs (there should not be hunger in America!) to small business expos (a teenage girl selling earrings she had made, saying, “I do this because I didn’t want to always be asking my mom for money”) and festivals at public schools (these kids are so earnest I can’t stand it, it’s so beautiful). So many of the things that used to seem corny now seem so radical, so relevant: people simply loving each other, trying to do the right thing. We’ve so strayed from the basics—we all know we have—and we’re all dying to get back to them. The small pleasures of life turn out to be the best ones. Small, random acts of kindness really do occur everywhere; we need to take all that love now and turn it into power.
We shouldn’t underestimate the dangers of this moment, but neither should we underestimate the love in our hearts that can guide us through it. Mahatma Gandhi said that the real leader of the Indian independence movement was “the small still voice within.” The small still voice within will lead our generation too, for it hasn’t gone away. It is an aspect of human consciousness. It is an eternal internal guidance system. Each of us has a job to do, a unique part to play in the repairing of our world, and we can be internally guided as to what part is ours to play.
It isn’t always easy for us to know what to do, but it wasn’t easy for our ancestors either. The abolitionists, the suffragettes, the civil rights workers—they too were traumatized by their circumstances and stressed by the enormity of the challenges before them. But they rose to the occasion, and so must we. They heard the call and responded to it. They did their part; now it’s time for us to do ours. The calling of the heart that called to them is now calling to you and me.
Minimizing the importance of the inner life is a legacy of a time now passing. At a time when the stresses on our planet—from climate change to out-of-control machineries of war—are so rampant, nothing is more realistic than to seek answers from within.
Consider spending five minutes every day sitting with your eyes closed, sending love from your heart to everyone in your country, and then extending that love to every sentient being in the world. Such meditative practice opens the mind to new dimensions of problem-solving as new synapses, new insights, new connections arise automatically. Our biggest failure is to limit our imaginations to twentieth-century prejudices, surrendering to the insidious illusion that there’s a limit to what’s possible. Where there is love, possibilities are endless. But they do not emerge from the world as we know it; they emerge from a place that lies beyond our normal waking consciousness.
At a certain time, abolishing slavery in America would not have been seen as a reasonable proposition. Gaining women the right to vote would not have been seen as a reasonable proposition. Ending segregation would not have been seen as a reasonable proposition. When it comes to disrupting what appears like an intractable status quo, reason alone isn’t our guiding light. The good, the true, and the beautiful emerge from a quantum realm of infinite possibility, when love and intention and commitment and devotion override all other factors.
It is not just our plans but also our imaginations that will summon the next great chapter of our history. It is not our reason but our hearts that will take us to the Promised Land. It isn’t an angry no to those who don’t know better, but rather a tender yes to the possibilities for a different kind of future that will open the door to the world we want.
How do we make love our agenda? By making it everything. Our generational problem, more than anything else, is our lack of full devotion. The miracle that will take us forward now is a 100 percent commitment to being who we need to be now, and doing what we need to do. We must not give in to the demonic chatter that life is lived for any other purpose than our capacity to love each other.
Teilhard de Chardin’s amazing words—“someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides, and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love”—should no longer be seen as a distant aspiration for some mythic future. What we are talking about now is our today and tomorrow. We will discover the fire of love, or we will be destroyed by the fires of fear.
Something is rising up from the depths today, centered not in any one geographical area, ethnic identity, or national identity. It’s the evolutionary lure of a sustainable future, calling us to remember who we really are and inviting us to rise up from the past. It is a hunger felt among all the people of the world. We are stirred to live our lives in a different way; to align ourselves with something truer and deeper than mere bricks and mortar or dollars and cents. This stirring brings with it a deeper reverence, for earth and sky, and for each other. If we truly want a different world, we must be willing to think in a different way and live in a different way than we do now.
Our children do not deserve to be burdened by the insidious delay tactic of passing on to them the work that is ours to do. This is our time. The mess is ours to deal with, the challenge is ours to meet, and the miracle is ours to claim.
Consciously abandoning holiness, we have subconsciously become prey to all that is not holy. We must rid ourselves of darkness now, by turning on the light of the higher mind. Its power alone can break the chains that bind us to a limited and unjust world. It gives us the strength to imagine, to work for, and to summon a more beautiful world.
The call that should beckon us is not the call of our pocketbooks but the call of our hearts—an ancient melody that lies in all of us and can never be totally forgotten. Let us awaken to the call of love reborn, hope restored, and life renewed. We can—and in fact we have no other choice. Death awaits us if we do not choose life.
Human beings can descend, but we can rise back up. We can choose wrongly, but we can choose again. Humanity has come to a fork in the road, and each of us is responsible for choosing which way we go now. There is a way marked Love and there is a way marked Fear, each path leading to more of the same.
Our powerlessness is feigned. We are not powerless at all. We are simply in the habit of disengaging from the things that matter most. We can change that. We are waiting for nothing but our own true selves, our commitment, our conviction, and our choice to choose again. Our national salvation begins when we consider the possibility that there might be another way. There is no reason, no wisdom, in holding on to past, unworkable ways. Moreover, there is no survivable future there.
In our finest hours, America has stood for what humanity at our best aspires to be. We have sometimes succeeded and sometimes failed, but today, in our time, it is ours to decide our path as we move forward. Lady Liberty’s torch is in our hands, but only we can determine whether it burns within our hearts.
Either we will allow it to illumine our understanding, or consciously or unconsciously we will burn down the house.
The mass of humanity is crying out for another way, and that way will be found. All walls will fall away that block us from our destiny. The only questions are, How much suffering will have to occur before that happens, and Will America be a leader in finding a new way—or one of the greatest victims to the old? Shall we pave the way to humanity’s higher purpose, in line with our historical mission, or shall we continue our current stumble into the depths of an irredeemable fall? This is not a rhetorical question. It is quite a literal one, and it cannot be answered by anyone but ourselves.
The day has come for an American reckoning. This is not the time to close our eyes, but to open them to the light within. It is a time of atonement, a time of replanting, and a time of deliverance. Or not; the choice is ours. In honor of our ancestors, and in honor of our descendants, may we choose well. May we choose wisely. May we choose love.
Chapter 1: Love in a Time of Crisis: Lessons in Fear and Love
Chapter 2: A Revolution of Love: Reviewing the Plot
Chapter 3: Love and Conflict: Disagreeing with Love
Chapter 4: An Economics of Love: A New Bottom Line
Chapter 5: American Youth: Equal Rights for Angels
Chapter 6: Race and Repentance: Out of Many, One
Dear Marianne, Gratitude, Best wishes always - blessings 1000 x 1000 to use our hands & mind with Souls United to miraculously fill the chasm of divisions with kindness, compassion, encouragement, empathy, and abundance necessary to help us all heal our Sacred Earth Mother from all the irreverent too often irreversible acts of aggression by humans. Viva Solidarity!!!
Whew. Stunning.
Thank you, Marianne.
I am always deeply moved and inspired by you, your beautiful spirit, and your wise words. Truly grateful for the powerful light you spread so generously.
Love, and more love. The only way.