A nation at a crossroads
A reflection on our journey towards forming a more perfect union ~ more questions than answers
When individuals are at a crossroads considering in what direction to move next, they may consider their history and previous experiences, create their movements from a vision of what they would like, and even chart a path guided by steps they would never wish to repeat. They may consider multiple roads and see which one feels truer to them. They may reflect on their foundational assumptions about themselves and their world. They may seek input from others, their faith, tradition, the times in which they live.
We are a nation at a crossroads, considering in what directions we want to move next. We are not alone. Much of the whole world is paying attention to our next steps. I'm drawn to three factors that hold clues to where we might be heading. First, we are holding the tension between two significant energies, one of hope and possibility; one of fear and despair. Second, we are considering foundational assumptions about ourselves and one another. Third, hidden in plain sight throughout the last couple of months have been examples of the ways in which we live together.
The Chinese word for crisis is made up of the symbols for danger and opportunity. Within crossroads or crisis are contained both fear and hope, danger and possibility. Our two political parties appear to embody the duality, with Democrats expressing hope and possibility while Republicans convey a sense of fear and calamity. However, what wisdom can we glean from holding both risk and opportunity? For example, after November 5 and whatever the outcome of the election, our nation is still experiencing both anger and hope. If we lean into this significant tension, what might we hear? Who needs to be heard? Who feels left behind? What losses are people fearing and grieving? How can we unite to carry ourselves forward on the energy of creative possibility while simultaneously tending earnestly and compassionately to those expressing our nation’s anguish and rage?
As we appear to express these dualistic divisions among our fellow Americans, these moments shed light on contrasting assumptions about who we are as individuals and as a people. Considering foundational assumptions, I invite you to begin with yourself. At your core, who are you? What do you assume about yourself as a human being, your worth, your purpose? What do you assume about those closest to you? What do you understand of connection, of love? It's limited thinking to assume your experiences with connection and love have been easy or abundant. How have your experiences informed your beliefs about yourself and the world? What assumptions have been guided by fear and pain, and what assumptions have been guided by love and kindness? What assumptions do you hold about your neighbor, those people you know as well as those people you have never met? What do you assume about the resources of your world? Do you assume sufficiency or lack? Do you see life as a competition for limited resources or an expansive environment where there can be enough? Once you begin to turn your attention outward, you begin to consider the ways in which your assumptions intersect with the assumptions of others. At this point, we begin to consider how these assumptions guide all of us living in community.
This summer, we experienced powerful examples demonstrating our energies, foundational assumptions, and the ways in which we live in community. These experiences reflect the power and impact of when individual choices intersect and become collective action. Two sets of examples stand out. First, the impact of spreading disinformation on the lives of a community. Second, the ways in which people leaned in to support storm survivors.
I wonder what assumptions and agendas guided the first people who created fictional stories about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio? What were your intentions, and for what outcomes were you hoping? What did these people mean to you? Did you know any of them personally? What intended and unintended consequences did you notice? What energy did you experience inside yourself when you were sharing these stories? What were you feeling? How might you have reacted if these stories were spread about you, your family, your children? How did members of the Haitian community and the Springfield community at large feel when these stories took root and grew? What assumptions and agendas guided Mr. Trump and Mr. Vance in spreading these stories, especially when they were declared false by the leaders within the Springfield community? I ask these questions from a place of curiosity, not judgment. Judgment may have its place, but it can also foster defensiveness and shutting down rather than reflecting and remaining open.
As a distant observer, I felt within myself and experienced in the coverage of the Springfield community feelings of confusion, hurt, fear, disconnection and othering. I imagined students, teachers, and parents feeling stress and terror as they were evacuated from schools for bomb scares. I imagined employees and employers frustrated with lost work days and pay when schools and businesses were shut down due to bomb scares. I imagined the professionals, individuals and families of the evacuated hospital feeling the panic of disrupted treatments, perhaps some at life altering moments. I imagined the outrage, frustration, and compassion experienced by community members uniting in support at local Haitian restaurants. Can you feel the energies of leaning in towards one another as well as cutting off from others? Can you recognize the assumptions of full humanity of yourself and others juxtaposed with assumptions of lesser value and worth, depending on things like color and country of origin? Recognizing our own individual and collective energy, assumptions, and intentions can help guide our individual and shared actions.
Devastating deadly storms wreaked havoc on several states in early fall. Homes and sections of towns were destroyed. Highways were uprooted. People were cut off from one another and life-sustaining supplies. Immediately after the winds and rain calmed, individuals seemed to instinctively act from a core place of caring and connecting. When all else around them was unrecognizable, their internal compass guided them towards helping one another.
Very quickly, individuals experiencing that same energy gathered together to form collective energy and focused action. Neighbors chainsawed fallen trees and skid-steers cleared the mud to open up pathways so four wheelers could rescue neighbors. Pack mule ranchers joined with those gathering provisions to travel deep up into the hills to bring supplies to those who lost their roads. Lineman from throughout our country and as far away as Canada formed miles long caravans, working 24 hour days in shifts to recover power. They worked with pilots to helicopter tall poles efficiently into otherwise inaccessible locations. Community members gathered to offer them meals, showers, and a place to rest for a while. And when a second storm expanded the disaster areas, the lineman spread out their efforts to new damage sites, sacrificing their returning home to their families until the job was done.
Schools became shelters, and the entire families would wake up each day and head into their small town to do whatever needed to be done to help their community cleanup and begin to rebuild. From Chef Andres and World Central Kitchen to individuals and families making huge batches of their favorite recipes, people fed one another, gathered, and shared stories and support. Farmers in one state shared tractor trailer trucks of topsoil to help nourish lost fields for farmers in another state. Donations of campers for newly homeless, clothing, generators, heaters, and food arrived in abundance. Just when it appeared there was nothing left, individuals and businesses shared what they had, and there was enough. How extraordinary that in the midst of devastation, people immediately went to helping one another, risking their own safety to make sure someone else was alive and safe. Can you feel that energy? Can you feel it within yourself, and can you feel when hundreds become one and express that energy together? Perhaps the guiding truth of that energy is that we are one.
We are a nation at a crossroads within a world holding tensions of the terror of war, devastation, death, as well as the compassion, grace, mercy, and possibility of creating our next steps along a journey towards a more perfect union. The steps of a nation begin within the heart of each citizen. I invite you to feel your guiding energy, listen for your hopes, be open to an assumption may be limited or false and to course correct, and to take steps guided by your own internal compass. Together, we will create our future. May it be a future inspired by our highest ideals.