A Pivotal Moment Coming November 5
This election coming up, we’re extremely worried about it.
There are 70,000,000 people just like you, worried sick that a bad person will win the election Nov 5, and that our democracy will permanently be destroyed.
We bear the weight of the world on our shoulders right now, as we await the outcome. Polls show a razor thin race between Trump and Harris.
Germany, the country that brought us Mozart, frankfurters and beer, to say nothing of the AustroHungarian Empire, has a word for it.
“Weltschmerz” - German for the weight of the world on your shoulders.
Weltschmerz, literally means world pain, but it can also describe the weight we 70,000,000 feel as we await the election results that hopefully come in right, clear and uncontested on Nov 6.
This pivotal moment is not the only one
This is just one event in our pivotal moment in history. There are others. Climate change threatens the way of life of just about everyone, may even klll tens of millions of people who bear no blame for its occurrence. Bangladesh, for example, is close to sea level, with very little industry.
Also, another pivotal moment, forceful conquest is in the air, we can almost smell the smoke and burning, as a former world power flexes its muscles, threatens nuclear warfare, and sends its awful might against a smaller country, leading us to fear that this will just be the first of 5 or 10 more countries conquered by this aging superpower, and eventually it could become possibly another Nazi disaster. (I feel there is too much emotion around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to comment on it right now.)
There have been other pivotal times. For example, the 1860s saw the overthrow of monarchies and the beginning of representative governments in Europe. And around 600 BCE there was religious growth, pivotal in its clarity and scope, in totally separated parts of the world.
Another pivotal change going on, though still relatively small, is a move towards a personal understanding of the world that is less selfish and more thoughtful of the overall good. One element of that is zen Buddhism, or its secular form, Mindfulness.
Towards understanding
This weight we feel has to do with a sense of helplessness. We feel we must change these things, but yet we cannot:
stop climate change
stop Russia
insure the better person wins the election Nov 5
get people to value the common good over individual good
These are impossible hopes. This is a perfect storm for stress and anxiety.
The missing link
We need a shift in how we understand and work with current pivotal problems.
I think we realize that any one of us cannot solve these problems or get someone elected all by ourselves. All we can do is blow off steam as we complain about the candidates or about their campaigns or about their weak solutions.
If only our complaints were heard and acted on by those in power :(
Thankfully, there are ways we can invest our precious energy. In a pragmatic way, we could be doing little things in your own lives to help these essential problems: for example giving some support to the countries under attack, eating responsibly, using less global-warming energy, sitting to develop our personal ability to live compassionately for the community, to name a few things. This is harder than it may sound. Sure we can throw away less food, to help against global warming. But are we willing to do more?
One easy way to make this pivotal time into a positive and promising time
The huge problem, for us as individuals, is to become right-sized. The problem with the above thinking is that it mostly needs to be implemented at a policy level, and we don’t have that power to change policy. Concentrated wealth seems to have an undue influence on that.
To be right-sized is to realize what we can and cannot do. Sort of like… the serenity prayer:
”Serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.”
In short: we can better choose how to use our precious energies if we become right-sized. Meaning that we take actions that probably will succeed.
What’s my own individual “right size?” Power to change myself is certainly significant. That’s probably the right size for many of us.
But for some of us, more is possible. Maybe some of us can also change a few others: So, if I can waste less food all by myself, might I have the ability to affect family members or neighbors? That’s a big jump in personal effectiveness. Maybe right-sized for some person is to affect 3 people. Maybe 5 people. Maybe 30 or 300 people. Each of us can find our right-size through experimentation. And to only affect 2 is nothing to be ashamed of - different people have different abilities in this area.
2 people is not many, but more effective than being trapped holding the weight of the world! And imagine the sense of satisfaction that comes with that, and the good sleep you might get knowing you have helped in this concrete and important way.
And we can make internal change too
There’s another way you can change everything. And that is within yourself.
You can lessen the weight of the world on your shoulders, because one person does not have to carry all that load. The Greeks invented Atlas to do that!
When you’re right sized you will know that you can change the external world, realistically, concretely, as described above.
Looking within for change is another highly feasible way to lift some of that weight from your shoulders and contribute to the world good.
You can help the world and yourself by changing your internal landscape. Being right-sized, doing appropriate-sized actions, and then relaxing a bit. Feeling the glow of life well-lived again.
That’s where mindfulness comes in. You can develop an internal muscle that reminds you that you already have most of what you need to be happy. That you are alive and breathing. That you can make right-sized wise actions and not get lost in hopeless dreams of changing the whole world. But stay grounded in reality and acceptance of your own “right sized” actions.
“Letting go gives us freedom, and freedom is the only condition for happiness. If, in our heart, we still cling to anything – anger, anxiety, or possessions – we cannot be free.”
– Thich Nhat Hanh
All you need to develop mindfulness is to become aware of the present moment. Hear. See. Feel touch. You know what I mean: let your awareness be in the present moment, grounded in the breath, aware of your 7 senses: the big 5 plus your thoughts and emotions.
In this state, when thoughts come in, you see them as thoughts, not as worries or regrets. You stop hopelessly trying to solve immense problems or making huge changes, but rather see your thoughts and emotions as passing events.
And feel the peace of being present, with acceptance of what you notice in the present, sitting with what you find in the present. And smiling to this life that you have, all the while knowing you are taking right-sized actions, external and internal, for your own and for the greater good.
