Post-Election Thoughts #6

Starting this past Wednesday morning, I am ignoring the mass media (I mostly have been for months anyway). The worst of them exist only for their own selfish ends and are largely responsible for the circus of insanity that got us to this point. The best of them are commendable for their candor and motives, but the stories they report are still only going to create discontent over things I cannot change at this point. I do not need my outrage to be developed and nurtured, there is nothing to be gained by mulling over details and investing energy into them. It is like this. Things are what they are but do not need to remain so. Alix and I will teach our children to be compassionate to all, to not attach to either fear or happiness, and to be good people. I will donate to charity and volunteer my time and skills to worthy causes that benefit others. I will help support the afflicted and abused, especially those victimized by what is yet to come. I will cultivate my own morality by acknowledging my own mortality and seek to pass that along when I can. I will vote with my wisdom and dollars and pen, but not with my emotions. I will not, however, hang on every juicy detail of a nightmare come true. I will not repost angry rants or gossip with like-minded people. I won't scan my News Feed or other news sources for thoughts that only serve to reinforce my existing beliefs, and then self-righteously proclaim all others to be worthless. Life is too short for moral outrage, even if the outrage is perfectly justified. Life is too beautiful to stay mired in sadness and anger and vengeance. In the grand scale of the universe, even these major events are insignificant. Life goes on, one breath at a time. There is something better than being right, better than getting what we want, better than not getting what we don't want - and that is peace from within, regardless of what happens in the external world. Ajahn Chah said "I don't talk about politics. I only talk about things that have an end." Things like suffering, the delusion of self, the myth of permanence. Those are what really matter. And so those are all I wish to talk about, too. Be well friends, and may you find peace in all things.