Every four years we do an election thing and the cyclicality of the whole, shenanigans and all, is a rhythmic national ritual of affirming our values, our identity, our direction.
The shenanigans make us cynical about politics, as if we needed more reasons to get cynical. Remember what Lilly Tomlin said, “No matter how cynical I get, it never seems to be enough.” If we slip, or dive, into the cynical path, there is no bottom. This is so bad for our hearts, our lives. It is a tainted worldview of major consequence.
Conventions and campaigning can also rekindle our realistic idealism with which we reclaim and reaffirm values, the ones worth having, voting for, and that give us hope. Let’s not forget that. And which worldview we spend more time in depends on us. It is our choice. We decide it by the hour. After all, who controls our will, our minds and hearts, but us.
I put this question in front of you—where are you trending on the hopelessly negative cynical vs hopefully realistic idealistic scale? What mental habits have you slipped into that could use some adjusting?
You know the answer to this question.
I put this idea in front of you. Our ideals have been and still are a gift from the USA to the world. Our huge pluralistic, self-governing democracy has never been tried before and we still can improve it and make it stronger. We do not have to destroy it and start over. The experiment lives. It has survived many a crisis because so many have chosen idealism.
Our gift of this idealism, embedded in our constitution, has been a gift to the world from the time it was first penned almost 250 years ago. The graphic I attached to this blog post is one from 10 decades ago. It honors our ideals. I place the words here to make them easier to read. They are posted in an unusual place near Chicago and come from a source I describe below that you will not guess:
“Oh, Thou Kind Lord! This gathering now turns to Thee…let this American Democracy become glorious in spiritual degrees even as it has aspired to material degrees, and render this just government victorious. Confirm this revered nation to upraise the standard of the oneness of humanity, to promulgate the Most Great Peace, to become thereby most praiseworthy and glorious among all the nations of the world…”
These words are on a permanent placard at the beautiful and striking Bahai Temple a few miles north of Chicago near Lake Michigan. Bahai is an all-faiths-accepting religion based on spoken prayer (like this quote) and on meditation. Its aim is to remind us we are always in the presence of the sacred. The words remind me of America the Beautiful—”God shed his grace on thee.”
Bahai was founded in Iran in 1863. In 1912, the quote was part of a large ceremony at the temple. Think of that. Iran. 112 years ago in Chicago. It says what our USA gift to ourselves and the world is –a way to make real “the oneness of humanity,” This is what we cherish and protect.
This democracy is hard work. Raising standards in any setting is always hard work. Ask new bosses who have the task of improving performance with a veteran team. The cynics on the team will have their say.
Let’s keep at it. Shoulders to the harness. We start by holding onto our ideals. We will know what settings we can affirm them. Hour by hour we make the choice to find the better alternative to cynicism. Lilly Tomlin was so right. Let us together “raise the standard for the oneness of humanity”.