The Political Awakening of a Spiritual Junkie

All it took was four years of Donald Trump — the last half of which I could not even bear to watch — to awaken me to the deep truth of democracy: it is fragile, and it is based on principles that are rooted in concepts, qualities, and commitments that are spiritual. I took those principles for granted until they were threatened on January 6, 2021.

Joe Biden stepped into office on the 20th, and the individual and collective healing from PTSD — Trump’s “legacy” — began.

I could breathe again. I could know that I wouldn’t have to wake up to today’s latest atrocity — today’s latest lie or dismantling action— attacking the core of my systems of belief, of decency, of reality, equality or of fairness.

You see, my politics are both simple and spiritual. They are not based in power-over, but in power-with. Every political action I have backed is based on a practical alignment, as much as is possible, with an ideal; the ideal of all of us truly being equal human beings attempting to learn to live together and approve our lot — collectively — for the good of all.

Equal respect, equal opportunity, equal pay, equal benefits of life regardless of where we live or who we are in this society. Inclusivity. Security. Respect. Compassion.

The further a politician strays from attempting to align with that ideal, the more I feel — well — slimed, because those principles are based on my spiritual practices, experiences and understandings that we are all made of the same stuff.

Now, I’m not naive. I’m not going to invite a mass murderer to my house for dinner just to “make nice”, because “we are all one”. That is a kind of immature spirituality that in my 20’s actually put me in physical danger. But I’ve been on this path for almost 40 years; I’m not immature now about the amount of discernment, courage, self-awareness and commitment it takes to become an emotionally and mentally seasoned person capable of living among — and interacting peacefully with — people who are “not like you”.

It took me years and years to find the place that we stand in complete commonality and to apply myself to understanding others from that platform. I became adept at reading in others the shared human experience that bridges cultures, languages and beliefs: the human experience of emotion.

In my attempts to bring peace to my experience and to my world — but without denying the existence of all that is far from peaceful in myself and in our world — I put the building of emotional bridges with others first in my communications. It is a powerfully successful practice that is full of fascination and depth.

But for all of my practices of consciousness around peaceful connection with others — including my practice of deepening my understanding of the many types and faces of peace— I was asleep at the wheel of my democratic consciousness. I didn’t think I had any power, and the power I did have — to speak up — I did use, but only after forcing myself to break through the fear of approaching that power, those Senators, with something as seemingly small as a phone call. Many many people are cowed by the mere perception of that power. Many many people do not make that phone call. And many many people do not vote, or use their vote to prove a reactive point rather than take a stand for something greater than their individual reaction.

When the man in orange stepped into the White House, I crumbled. I cried for three days following that fall of decency because I already knew, as did many, that the man is based not in any of the grounded beliefs of decency and service! Equally alarming, he is not a man of intelligence nor vision nor self-control. He has a greedy wounded child’s consciousness — self-centered, bullying and controlling: I want it, and I want it my way, therefore it’s mine. But unlike a 3-year-old, he is not in fact an infant, which makes him incredibly dangerous. As we have seen.

I cried, and I did what I could. I marched. I signed countless online petitions. I called my representatives — but one of them is a Republican who adheres not to the Constitution but to his party, and who clearly doesn’t do the job he was hired for. So, my calls didn’t have any impact, on him at least. I am enraged, but less so knowing that my power lies not in impotent rage, but in finding the legal and proactive ways to get him out of that position he does not deserve to inhabit.

As these four years have unfolded, I have leaned into watching and resisting the erosion, and then I have leaned away, feeling too emotionally beaten up by the consistent insistence on lying and twisting, on selling our country to Putin, on the adoration of dictators we have formerly held a firm line against, on dismantling protections. I couldn’t emotionally take the beating.

I couldn’t stand that Trump not only fiddled but he shrugged while Rome burned — while COVID took out over 400,000 Americans.

I couldn’t stand the erosion of truth; the dangerous diatribes against facts, turning them into “opinions”. If there is no truth, there is no ground, and no sanity.

You and I can disagree — I have no problem with that — but when fact is seen as opinion, and mutual respect is seen as weakness, as something to be mocked, I am done. We are done. And our lives as we know it are done.

Everything on which our country is built, topples.

So. I am awake now to the spiritual need for paying attention to the spirit and practice of democracy that means everything to the quality of our lives. This democracy needs some serious attention, and it did do long before Trump sat down in the Oval Office and declared the job “boring”.

My black and brown brothers and sisters were being hunted and murdered long before the Orange Cancer came along. Women were being raped and abused and disrespected and underpaid and disparaged long before he arrived on the scene. The poor and the elderly were seen as weights to be untied — unsavory mistakes rather than human beings on a journey just like the rest of us.

If Dumptruck did anything for us, it was to expose the roaches in the kitchen, and they are BIG HONKING ROACHES.

So, we need to do something to show that we are committed to Standing in Truth. Unshakably. What we don’t need to do is shake hands with the roaches. If the Nazis are coming to your house to take you to Auschwitz, you do NOT greet them with “Let’s all just get along.”

That is a kind of unshaped desire for oneness that avoids the responsibility of holding ourselves, and one another, to our higher standards, the standards which are not merely “important” but are the bedrock of our existence as human beings!

We are in a time of evolution. It should probably not surprise us that our foundations are shaking. But we have to take the best of the past and move into our future without clinging to old answers. We have to honor the structures that have kept us upright up until now, and then we have to go deeper and wider with the structures our founding fathers put into place. We have to question if what we have is the best way for us to govern. We have to transform from a country of control, to a country of woke people who are truly watching and working with our representatives, woke people who are coming together to make sure that those representatives each represent ALL of us, not just those they agree with the most. We have to embody “we the people”. We have to reclaim that truth. Not all of us want to be involved in politics.

I don’t.

But the fact is that you are involved in politics, because your life is ruled by them.

The profession of being a politician — just like that of being a teacher — is supposed to be a high service. It is not supposed to be just a lifelong financial ticket to the fair. All it takes is a few years of service in the Senate or House to be gifted with plenty of money each year after you leave. That should not be. Any inducements to increase a person’s greed should be removed from this job or any of the jobs in government.

Because governing is a high spiritual and human calling that requires a deep understanding of things beyond one’s own desires.

Or it should be that.

I am asleep at the wheel no longer.

With the antithesis of spirituality — fascism, and the fear that breeds it— prowling the streets of our collective consciousness, and our political body, not one of us can afford to be asleep. And with the advent of our electronic magic, we can all do this together.

None of this is about violence. It is about standing firmly in Truth. The Truth— self-evident to me and to all others I know — that all men and women of all colors and all situations and all ages and all beliefs were created equal. And remain so.

It is time to live up to that awareness. I am thinking of Amanda Gorman’s galvanizing speech at the Inauguration when I write that it is far past time not just to talk about what we think light is, but to courageously be the light. The light of truth, of compassion, of organic and inclusive growth. Individually. And together. In whatever ways we can, politically…or not. And to wake up, get out of our metaphorical bed, and be counted.

Power-with to the people.

Lori Kirstein is a Business Consultant in Authenticity & Vulnerability in Communication, and the founder of The Goodbye Good Girl Project which is committed to questioning the rules that govern our lives, work, and consciousness, in order to promote freedom, regeneration, and transformation.