(A sister post to my most recent.)
I’ll be honest, sometimes I wonder if I’m part of the problem. (Side note – if you want to test your own level of self-assuredness, type that sentence sometime and see how it feels.) If there is a devil on my shoulder, then I blame him (of course it would be a “him”) for my eagerness to leap into the verbal fray.
But there is an angel on my shoulder too. A Jekyll to my Hyde. A Cher to my Sonny. And every now and then she gets my attention. And, of course, it would be a “she.”
I’m in a constant hop-scotch between the two. On the one hand, hey, knowledge is power. Study, analyze, research. Pack the brain until it feels mighty damn important. Be an informed voter. Read the paper. Read the encyclopedia. Read Trivial Pursuit cards. . . for fun.
On the other hand, sometimes I wonder if I really need to know any of that crap. Perhaps I should trade in a few cable news anchors for 13 indigenous grandmothers. Information overload eventually and inevitably sends me running to the woods to commune with the oaks and listen to the scuffle of squirrels in the leaves and the caw of the raven. For a few days I avoid the Comcast home page headlines and start my day with sacred moon incense. I pause to acknowledge the wisdom of the west, the north, the east, the south and shake the flame to embers with a silent appeal for the health of our planet.
It’s an age-old war that is not at all unique to me, I know: that war of wills between the aggressive mind and the passive heart, the assertive brain and the silent soul. My mind uses fear. It tells me I’ll fall behind, that something really important will happen, that I must stay informed with the world’s comings and goings. It tells me that if I’m not careful, I’ll become like my sister, Donna (“We have a black President??”).
My spirit uses . . . well, nothing. It just sits patiently and accepts me home every time I return.
My brain is like an academic playground. Politics are the video game I’m addicted to. And when I get really still and centered, I realize just how insignificant it all is. There really are more important forces at work in the universe.
I don’t want to be part of the problem. I want to be part of the solution. And I have a feeling the solution will come from the heart.
Guess I’ll have to think about that for awhile.
Deb Moore 
I thought I was the only one to read trivial pursuit cards for fun. 🙂
For me, knowledge, in itself, is not the problem. It is my inability to accept that about 30% of the population thinks Glenn Beck, et al., walks on water, that is my problem. I’d be a lot happier if I could just accept that they are weird, misguided, deluded; and that is the way they PREFER to be, because it supports a worldview that doesn’t take them out of their comfort zone. Arguing with them is like jumping out of a plane without a parachute. Yields the same result. Splat.
I do escape the MSM now and again, just to take a breather. There is only so much negativity one can take before total shut down ensues.
Annette 🙂
My mate and I were just talking over this specific subject, she actually is constantly attempting to prove me completely wrong! I am going to present her this particular write-up and additionally rub it in a little!
Just reading back over some of your posts, and CRACKED up at the Donna reference!!! OMGoodness…i hope she doesn’t read your blog, lol….
….very thoughtful piece of writing, and from another soul that wages the same battle, I “feel ya'”…I try very hard and am usually successful in refraining from engaging in political debate on fb especially…but every now and then I just can’t keep my cyber mouth shut!!! I always regret it, it never…yet…results in changing someone’s view of the world…and yet, I’m drawn to engage and challenge!!! …if I really believe that people do the best they can with what they have then why do I feel the need to try and change them?, lol….how do I balance the belief that you should fight for what you believe in, fight for change that is right and just and good, with more recent beliefs I’ve grown to have about what my “purpose” is, about what I want in life related to peace, contentment, harmony, etc…I really used to hate my mother’s “lectures” about balance but it would seem that is what I’m striving for! As my favorite Yoga instructor would say “it’s all about the journey, NOT the destination!” …what a journey it is somedays!!! Hope you’re journey is going as you need it to! 🙂
Denise, sometimes I struggle too with the idea that I might be trying to change someone and shouldn’t I just allow them to be who they are. But then I contemplate the idea that who I am is someone who expresses passionately about what I believe, and perhaps it is my very purpose in their life to at least not let them remain too comfortable in their own thought bubble and forget that there are other views. It’s a paradox. I’ve given up on trying to change anyone. But, altering myself in order to not offend would be attempting to change me, and I don’t really want to do that either. The more I look at issues, conflicts, disagreements, et. al., in terms of what they say about ME rather than what they say about the OTHER, the more valuable those interactions become for me. And Donna wouldn’t not get offended. She is very comfortable with and, in fact, quite proud of the fact that she is almost completely disengaged from the political realm. It leaves room in her brain for her immense understanding of the spirit. 🙂