Peace & Love are Needed Now as Much as Ever!

Jill (Cha Cha), Bhante Sujatha and Me

Today's blog will be a bit different from most of my other blog writings to date here; I am attempting to combine two stones to make one single ripple. Jill (normally Cha Cha for you newcomers) and I went to the Blue Lotus Buddhist Temple today like we have done many. many, many times. We have not gone for several weeks but fate or destiny or whatever force that was at play this week made it so that I did not have to work on this particular Saturday. Today Bhante Sujatha (the title "Bhante," incidentally, literally means "venerable sir,") gave us a kind of homework to write a letter to whomever (in my case to myself and you) would read it. I would call Bhante Sujatha our spiritual leader (or the head monastic) on the Buddhist/meditation journey that Cha Cha and I have been on and it is kind of ironic, to me at least, that I posted a photo of him in yesterday's blog too. The letter to follow is supposed to bring love and kindness and healing to people who are feeling lost or confused or afraid or vindicated or victorious... whichever view you share on recent events occurring primarily in The United States of America but also the rest of the world as we are just one blue ball floating through space after-all and we all have effects on one another. So, here goes my attempt at this letter. I will try very hard to be respectful and not to be the smarmy, wise-acre guy this one of very few occasions.

Dear fellow citizen of Earth (or elsewhere if you actually are out there and, for some odd reason, you have decided to read this and can read my current-chosen Earth language):

I am very proud to live in one of the, presumably, most progressive societies on the face of this planet. The United States of America (USA) is one of the most forward-thinking counties on this big blue ball circling our galaxy's sun. Or. at least that is what we try to tell ourselves. We Earthlings have experienced many great obstacles and challenges since humans began crawling from the primordial soup (or however we became upright land-walking beings) and we face different things to conquer each and every day. The most recent thing (and still fresh at this point) is the current separations of people supporting different political beliefs following the Presidential election in this country. Just like any contest, there is going to be a winner and there is going to be a loser and, for many reasons, there is great separation between the people who voted one way and the people who voted the other way. I suppose there always is but this time it seems different. People who regularly read the blog or know me personally know which way I lean politically but now I know why I have always disliked politics. I wish everyone could win at everything but that is not the way things happen. Not everybody gets a trophy in this contest.

Let's not forget why this country is so great!

One of the reasons that I say the USA is so progressive is because many countries would have, and have had, violent turmoil or actual collapses given the divide we recently experienced here this past week. I must admit that I have posted a few sore-loser comments and photos on my Facebook page during and shortly after the person that I felt better represented my values and views more than the other did not win. Rarely do politicians in this country have the commoner's, like my and probably your (given the popular vote numbers), concerns or values in their minds at all. Politicians, bottom line, are by-and-large concerned with their own interests and pockets way before those pockets of the populace. When politicians make comments about this or that we have always thought many of those words to be just rhetoric and hollow promises that sound great to one group of people or another so that the person spewing them just utter them to get elected and then will do whatever they really want to do or are able to do given the many obstacles they face with the Senate or The House of Representatives... Why do we accept this?

I am proud that the healing has seemed to begin but I am also concerned that there are lots of protests and demonstrations still going on too. There are more things and time to come before the new President is sworn in and I worry that something terrible will happen though I really hope it does not. Many other countries would have collapsed or been in utter chaos after such a contest where the popular vote (the actual votes of we individual people voting) was ignored and the Electoral College (who actually choose the winner in the USA with their votes. presumably, representing "We The People"). Right now, as I write this, there are protesters marching and demonstrating for the fourth straight day against the outcome of this election only an hour away from me in Chicago. We (they and I and you) need to accept the way that our system is and move-on. Perhaps we can try to fix it before the next election? I have thought for many years how, with the technology that we possess, we should be able to have a computer tabulate each of our votes and have an exact, accurate tabulation of each and every vote. That, however, does not change what has already happened and we have to get back to our lives and, like I always did while playing baseball or football or hockey, get some stitches or rub some dirt on it and get back in the game (back to our lives). 

My dad and I do not see eye-to-eye politically (especially this year) but I am not going to disown my father as he is not going to disown me over this. We have lived very different lives, he and I, and lived during different times of American and world history. I disagree with many of his thoughts and beliefs as he does with mine. This was my son's first year eligible to vote in a Presidential election (which he did) and I do not want him to be tainted by what can happen and never vote again. I believe my daughter was able to vote in the last election as well as this one and, happily, she and my wife and I and my son all seem to have similar political leanings though I would not love any one of the members of the family regardless. I offer the same promise to you about you. Civil discourse is what we need now and I, for one, will try my darnedest not to rip someone else's bandages off in spite. Though I am not happy with how this played-out I will accept what is inevitable and go chin-up into the future no matter what comes my way. I hope you do the same and spread love and understanding and, as Bhante would say... be well, happy and peaceful! 


Thanks for letting me catch two birds at one time (not "kill two birds with one stone" as you all know that I would not kill any living creature on purpose). Please do not let sorrow or anger or confusion or braggadocio taint your view of our world or our friends. We are all in this together and we have what we believe to be in everyone's best interest in out minds and in our hearts. Don't be the small leak that sinks the mighty ship.

Peace! Here's one of my favorite songs though I love so much music! This one fits well here. Click the yellow link there to listen now (don't worry, it's free).