Healing our nation’s wounded soul in Daydreaming on the Porch
- Jan. 17, 2021, 1:50 p.m.
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- Public
In light of the events of January 6 and the four nightmarish, dystopian years which preceded and directly led up to that horrific and shameful day in our history, I have read and re-read these two quotes. They express in a few short words what might take me pages to write, out of anger and despair, but also out of hope. In Marianne Williamson’s words, I read about that hope from a sane and clear voice crying out in the wilderness for us to listen.
President Donald Trump is leaving America in a vortex of violence, sickness and death and more internally estranged than it has been for 150 years.
Steven Collinson
…To say our nation’s soul needs healing is absolutely true, but it’s not going to happen without a deeper understanding of what it means. The reason our nation’s soul is sick is because it hasn’t been healthy for a while. America doesn’t just have a pandemic, a broken economy or a tyrannical president to [have dealt with]. We have a collective mental health issue that is hiding in plain sight....
Only when we decide as a society to actively align our policies with the tenets of a healthy soul—putting kindness, love, mercy and compassion over cutthroat attitudes that put glorification of self over a commitment to the love that binds us as one, not only in our private behavior but in our political and economic behavior as well—will our wounded soul begin to heal itself…
Marianne Williamson
Last updated January 19, 2021
ConnieK ⋅ January 17, 2021
I disagree that we "haven't been healthy for a while". I guess I'm not sure what she means by "a while". We haven't been healthy for 4 years, but the extremists are not that large a group and the recent treason has had a huge effect on their numbers. Not all of them went to break in. Not all of them entered the Capitol building. So the they and others who were horrified have left the party. The GOP is boiling down to the hardcore anarchists. The only way to save their party is to abandon ship, which is also political suicide. And we ask it out of greedy, self-serving people who compromised their moral values in order to line their pockets.
Oswego ConnieK ⋅ January 17, 2021
I think she’s referring g to the fact that our entire capitalistic economic system is rotten to the core and has created a society of extreme haves and have nots which has inflicted enormous suffering. In the process, selfishness and greed , and a “me first and foremost” mentality among a vast swath of the population (Republicans) has seeded our present day dire circumstances, exacerbated ten-fold by the staggering economic disruption of the pandemic. It’s been like that for ages, but became particularly malevolent and destructive starting with Reagan in 1980. That’s when the destruction of the middle class began in ernest. So yes, we live in a sick society, an unequal and unjust society.
ConnieK Oswego ⋅ January 17, 2021
I see your/her point, but I see grand statements like that become the focus rather than a solution. NO government is perfect (although Norway comes close, if you ask me).
Does our imperfection make us sick? I point to families as an example: does one sick member make the whole family sick? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. We're on the right track. Each generation has had lessons to learn and this one has been one big gigantic lesson in what happens when one person has too much power.
I don't think capitalism is rotten to the core, but the scale needs balancing.
We have a long walk to Utopia, but this experience, if we all live through the inauguration, will be a huge step forward. And there are steps forward. The bigotry is ticking a lot of young people off as so many are bi-racial. I'm voting Progressive on the next round, I think.
Oswego ConnieK ⋅ January 17, 2021
You make good points, and I agree. But to re-iterate, capitalism has been corrupted into an Ayn Randian-type national economic and social sickness that feeds on and uses the uneducated and bigoted members of society to preserve its power and dominance over the entire society. Although I think corporate America is changing for the better, human nature being what it is, I am pessimistic about any fundamental changes or solutions.
As you say, Utopia will be a long time coming, if ever, to our species, and so we have to work with those in power who at least have inherited a social conscience (Democrats: Social Security, Medicare, Civil Rights Act, etc). It’s the only hope until they, with the rise of enlightened younger generations, morph into progressive and enlightened citizens with a conscience. But like I say, this is being highly optimistic.
ConnieK Oswego ⋅ January 17, 2021
I thought Ayn Rand was pretentious and full of BS! LOL!
Oswego ConnieK ⋅ January 17, 2021
True, but not to a sizable number of horribly wrong-headed but dangerous acolytes (Eg, Alan Greenspan, Rand Paul, Paul Ryan, Rex Tillerson) and of course that abomination of a novel Atlas Shrugged. All dangerous BS, yes!
Deleted user Oswego ⋅ January 18, 2021
I was just about to say that Reagan restructuring tax brackets was the beginning. Voting for him was the biggest folly of my youth.
Oswego Deleted user ⋅ January 18, 2021
I remember being so astonished when Reagan won by such a huge margin. And he was a big racist, too. It’s just that his silly grin and jelly beans fooled people into thinking he was a genial old actor/uncle. I always liked Jimmy Carter and was really stunned when someone like Reagan became president, but nothing by comparison to the shock after Trump won. That was a very dark day, and it just got worse and worse.
ConnieK Oswego ⋅ January 18, 2021
I had just given birth to my first baby. My husband saw the long lines and refused to let me out. He was right. I was in no shape to do that. I've always blamed my husband for Reagan's victory.
Jimmy Carter is such a good guy. The Iran Hostage taking did him in.
mcbee ⋅ January 17, 2021
The long growing mental health crisis and homeless crisis has been ignored creating the climate we live in today. Our country will not be whole again until we make a better plan to address the needs of all the people.
WhatDreamsMayCome ⋅ January 18, 2021
I fear things will get worse before they get better.
Oswego WhatDreamsMayCome ⋅ January 18, 2021
This is something I fear, too, but now that there’s a new, sane administration in charge, I think the country is is going to calm down significantly and the extremists will go back into the woodwork.
Jinn ⋅ January 18, 2021
The root of the problems is always money ; the haves and the have nots. To live comfortably in this country you need money and enough of it to take care of your needs. Sadly 90 percent of the population does not have that. There will never be peace here until we all can live comfortably .
Oswego Jinn ⋅ January 18, 2021
I agree. And we can start by exponentially increasing the availability of affordable housing, because these days the dwindling middle class are way over their heads with housing. All sorts of the most basic and positive social and economic benefits accrue from something as simple as having a decent place to live. I don’t see how people in good conscience can be in real estate these days. Sighs. This problem will take a long time, if ever, to solve because most people in business in this country care only about maximizing profits at the expense of everything else.
Jinn Oswego ⋅ January 18, 2021
Exactly ; which is why the rich get richer ( even in this pandemic) and the poor become destitute and homeless. The working class and middle class are always teetering on the edge of both :-(