Maybe this IS why we're all here right now...

I begged the universe not to put me on this timeline: where the lunatics are about to run the asylum, the thieves are about to run the banks, the crooks are about to run the courts, the dictators are about to run the democracy, the r*pists are about to protect women, the vile are about to crown themselves as the second coming, and the traitors are about to install themselves king for life.

I begged for a better future for all of us than this: who knows how many innocent women, trans people, people of color, non-rich people, dissenters, and other scapegoats will be killed and consumed by the awful machine that the majority of our voting public has unleashed upon us? How many elderly, disabled people, and impoverished children will be literally starved off the planet? How many of us will be poisoned by the robber barons? Like I've said, it's going to be a bumpy ride...if we survive.

If you've been following the blog, you've seen me immediately call for community as we face the coming onslaught. You've seen me remark that we can't help what others do to us, but we are in complete control of how we use it--we can choose to be traumatized, or we can choose joy.

And I'm sure you could see that I am choosing joy. 

I am choosing to be love and light to all I encounter. Maybe that's all I can do, but it's something.

The day after the election, I was filled with a nagging sense of unease. Yesterday, I framed my immediate plans for building up my own little bubble of love and light and encouraging us all to do the same so that those bubbles can merge into a larger one that ultimately becomes the groundswell of a better, more just, more egalitarian, less capitalist society that simply takes over by fiat. Framing that plan replaced the sense of unease with a sense of peace. This still was not my choice or my preference, but I can work with it.

Today, a thought hit me right between the eyes and froze me in my tracks: what if this is exactly why you're here right now? What if this is exactly why we're all here right now?

Maybe we're all here right now because we all wanted to build this better society for all from the ground up, with our own hands deep in the clay.

Maybe the storm that's about to hit our nation and our world is the very thing we needed to rip off every facade and shine a light on and then wash away all the fear, shame, and hate.

I've said for a long time that the reason the right is pitching such a fit right now is that they know that the fear, shame, and hate that fuels them are on their way out. They know that their policies are bankrupt, their morals are bankrupt, their economy is bankrupt, and a majority of us are starting to see through their act of bullying and power. We want more, we want better, and we've stopped buying into their antics and being controlled by them.

We've known for a long time that, as my namesake Dot Calm said of w, the emperor has no clothes.

I've said for a long time that we're in the death throes of a dying system.

I was hoping that the transition to the new, better socioeconomic system would be more smooth, graceful, and inherently joyful--that we'd work from the grassroots up with our Democratic government down to build something that works for everyone.

But maybe this really is the best and fastest way to get where we're going.

Part of compassion is accepting what is. 

I learned a long time ago that I can't save everyone--and that not everyone wants saving. 

Some people really do prefer to suffer, and that is their right.

And it's everyone's right to live their own lives as they see fit and to engage with the experiences they want without someone else trying to intervene--there's just no way any of us can see into the hearts and minds of other people and dictate what is best for them.

So, as we practice compassion, we must remember that part of it is not to exhaust ourselves by trying to save the world. Let what is be what it is. Just focus on being the love and the light that we are and shining that love and light unconditionally on everyone we encounter.

Maybe we can even get excited about this--we ARE the solution, and all we have to do is BE...be the love and light, and trust everything else to sort itself out.

I know...even though I really do believe in what I'm suggesting, I'm not all the way there myself...at least, not yet. I'm sure af not excited yet (although I can see how it can come if I let it). Part of me wants to fuss at and correct maga for thinking it knows what's "best" for me (and by "best," I mean "worst"). Part of me wants to point and laugh and continue othering them, and I can't guarantee that I will have any sympathy for any of them when the leopard they embraced eats their faces. 

But, in the meantime, I'm going to continue to invite in and ponder the thought that maybe this IS why we're all here right now. Maybe building back better is the job we signed up for. Maybe this is our greatest legacy to build--a more peaceful, joyful, loving, just, egalitarian society for the nation and the world where we finally value people more than money, perhaps for the first time ever.

That's what I'm working toward.

Will you join me?