The right to vote is something I have taken lightly…not today. It matters.
This is not meant to be a story about politics, but more a reminder of our humanity, the freedoms we often take for granted, or hold cavalierly. I know I have. I know I have turned away from things that have made me feel uncomfortable. I know I have not always stood up for what I thought was right or believed in. I would stand in the corner and refuse to take sides, as I grew up in a family that was very positional on what they believed. We are “right”, and everyone else was wrong. it was true for both politics and religion. That left me in the middle. Hating confrontations, hating when people spoke mean to each other, hated when friendships changed because they wouldn't take your side. Even as an adult I refused to get into petty arguments over things that were not that important. I never attended a rally or peaceful demonstration. I never got involved.
Then about seven years ago I had a smack yourself upside the head…light bulb moment. I saw that I had a lot of judge-mental thinking about myself and everyone else. I made assumptions about what other people thought of me, I judged myself for what I thought of them. The really interesting part was realizing that I had no factual reason for any of it because in fact it was ALL MADE UP! Politics is kind of similar, we judge those who have taken on positions of power. They take on certain roles and are held accountable to some degree for their actions. They are judged sometimes harshly for the decisions they make especially when it will affect so many other human beings. No decision no matter how well-intended can please everyone. So we do our best as a society to choose who we think is best suited to take on that job. We choose sides, we listen to what each party is interested in bringing forth. We weigh our options. We have the freedom to choose which way we go, that’s called a Democracy. My country has not always acted like a democracy, it has acted more like a cantankerous child. Screaming and crying in order to be heard. My opinion is right and yours is wrong…
I have never seen giving into to a willful cantankerous child a good idea. As a coach, I am not one to follow them down the rabbit hole of their rebellious, cantankerous, and willful thinking. I wait them out. I wait for them to settle down. I wait for their own innate clarity and wisdom to come shining through. I have learned I don’t need to try to fix them, cajole them, bribe them, humor them, agree or disagree with them, or anything else that follows the line of their momentary lapse with reality. I know one thing for absolute assurance. We are built for reality, not La la land. For those unfamiliar with the term, I refer to the fact that we are thinkers. The power however lies in the Fact that we Think, not the content of our thinking. That’s what get’s us into trouble. We try to fix the content by creating more content(ie: thinking) to fix it with. As far as I know, it doesn’t work out very well.
We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them”- Albert Einstein
So as I stood in line with all the voters this morning, seeing the variety of humans just waiting for their turn, I felt the pride of knowing I had overcome my own human obstacles to be there. I had shown up early, I had brought my shower stool, as standing too long wasn’t an option for me. I was standing/sitting ahead and behind those who would be voting what their hearts had led them to. Who was I to judge if that was right or wrong? If they were voting from a deep sense of who they believed would do the best job, then I was proud to share the line with them. We were each exercising our right to choose. We were doing it peacefully. We were being kind to each other and showing respect. We were acting like compassionate human beings. We were being Democratic!
