My Contemplative Conclusions

Anyone who knows me well has probably guessed or assumed that my contemplation on Easter Sunday was aided by a drug.  Indeed it was.  LSD can be a wonderful aid to deep contemplation and profound feeling. I was trying to find a way forward, given my belief that the best part of the America project is, to me, in its death throes. Of course, that project was built on a frail and twisted foundation, but progress seemed to come with every decade since the 1930s--until it stopped. And now we are hurtling backward.  I hope, of course, that I am wrong.  But this contemplation is about what to do if I am right.

Anyway, I did my day: Music for the first five hours. Comedy for the next five hours.  I cried, I laughed.  I grieved.  I came to these conclusions.

1. The centrality of love, person-to person love, as the building block to all good in the world. My favorite orchestral piece makes this point beautifully. 

2. Homogenous communities work best. (Just look at the nations who have dealt with Covid-19 the best - and I include Sweden, even though it is following a completely different path, but the society seems ok with it.) But if you are built, like America, as a nation of disparate immigrants, pluralism must be our guiding light. We need to accept and celebrate true diversity of opinion.  This is what is failing now.

3. The forces on left and right that want to impose cultural hegemony and political hegemony are driving us apart and both sides are resorting to autocratic means to do so. Pluralism is no longer holding us together. 

4. History shows, generally, that those who crave power win over those who put love, justice, kindness and fairness first.

5. I don't want to be them.

6. I want to be like the Jews - specifically secular or lightly religious Jews - who just have my favorite culture in the world, and yet they still integrate beautifully into the broader culture. They are a model for how to survive and thrive in spite of whatever happens. While I am not a MOT (member of the tribe, for those who might not know), I am most definitely a FOT.  I posted this yesterday but if you think you don't know Jewish culture well, this is a great place to start:

7. Side point: at this moment in time, the LDS church should be viewed as a strange-bedfellow ally. While they have differing views about many things, they do believe in the American project in its best sense, they support science and the arts, and they integrate into the wider community. We need to start cross-evangelizing. (I have actually being doing this for years...)

8. How we should be if things go south? The answers are all in the Dave Chappelle Mark Twain award show. (Thanks, Linda for this tip! - you have to have Netflix to see it.) 

But let me quote two things from the show. 

First, I aspire to be what Jon Stewart says Dave Chappelle is:  "I don't know anybody who cares more deeply, and anybody who gives less of a fuck." 

Secondly, what must be done in this time comes from Toni Morrison (Chappelle quoted it to the Saturday Night Live staff right after Trump's election): "This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal." I am not much of an artist, but I will support all you true artists. Get to work.

9. The first artistic masterpiece of the Covid-19 era is absolutely this, which you have already seen, but see it again.  This guy's entire career led to this perfect moment.  It's awesome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2BZNowCXws

Broad conclusion: Go forward with more love. No hate. Limit anger. Be brave but kind.  Brace for "your side" losing. Do art.

I feel more content.