A Nation in Mourning

Loss and letting go are two of the most difficult experiences we as humans ever have to face.

Every religion has its way of dealing with death. In my religion, Judaism, burial must be within 24 hours of death followed by a seven-day mourning period called “shiva” during which time all routine life comes to a halt and the focus is upon grieving, honoring the life of the deceased while emotionally and physically supporting the immediate person or persons who have sustained the loss.

But death can come to ideas and systems as well as people. When it does, the experience of loss under those circumstances can be just as real and just as traumatizing. In fact, there are losses that transcend the immediate parameters of their local occurrence and spread outward to impact our collective consciousness. Examples in my lifetime were the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and John Lennon as well as the tragic death of Princess Diana. Those losses went beyond the deaths of the individuals to profoundly impact out psyches and our culture nationally and, in the case of Diana, globally. Most recently, the sudden death of Prince seems to have had such an impact upon a certain generational segment of the population. Each of these sparked a kind of collective mourning for the loss of what the life represented or a grander and more profound level.

Since Tuesday, I have been in mourning for my country. I do not believe I have been alone although I’m not certain how many people have actually identified what they are feeling as the grief that comes from loss. I’m not speaking of the voting losses of Senator Ted Cruz in Indiana and his subsequent suspension of his Presidential bid, but rather that grander and more profound loss that his withdrawal represents.

Elizabeth Kubler-Ross was a Swiss-American scientist and the groundbreaking researcher in the field of death and dying. In her seminar work, On Death and Dying, she identified the five stages of grief resulting from loss. They are: 1) denial and isolation; 2) anger; 3) bargaining; 4) depression; 5) acceptance. I believe these stages are what the citizens of this nation have been passing through, each of us now in one of those five stages, relative to what the country once was and what it has become.

For the past 100 years Socialism, disguised as Progressivism, has been encroaching upon and eating away at our government, our industry and our way of life. As per Kubler-Ross’s stage 1, we denied this truth and tried to isolate ourselves from it as well as the warning bells that some such as President Dwight Eisenhower, economist Frederick Hayek and author Ayn Rand were ringing. Over the past decade, as the dire effects of Progressivism began to overtake our everyday lives and make everyday existence an uphill battle we became angry. Stage 2. Most recently, in Stage 3, many are trying to bargain their way around the inevitable loss. This is the Donald Trump phenomenon. It’s the “Let’s Make A Deal” illusion that we can avoid the inevitable by avoiding the reality by hiding in the illusion of re-negotiating the loss or negotiating a different outcome that will undo the loss.

Many of us, since Tuesday, have been in Stage 4. I was there until this morning and, as I write, still feel the vestiges of it. I was depressed and sitting “shiva”… grieving for the loss of the principles and values that made my nation the greatest experiment in human freedom and creativity to ever grace this planet. I know I’ve not been alone because others have told me of their depression as well and many have posted similar feelings on Facebook and other social media.

But Kubler-Ross gives us the inevitable next step in the healing process if we intend to move on. Acceptance. It’s not acceptance of the depression, its acceptance of the fact that life goes on and only those willing to go through the stages with open eyes and courage come through the loss with the renewed spirit necessary to return to a full life.

Judaism also teaches me that the way you honor a loved one or anyone who has died is to take the best of their character and live it yourself. That’s how you keep them alive and honor their soul. I suggest we do the same for the Republic. Let those of us who have moved beyond denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance, take the best of what this nation was before the disease of Progressivism began to crucify it and resurrect that vision of a nation devoid of the heavy handed intrusion by a centralized government and which stands for every individual’s God given rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

originally posted at http://abovethefraypodcast.com/a-nation-in-mournin