Two critical questions to ask yourself during the election — regardless of who you’re voting for (or who wins)

Liminal dispatch, 11.02.20

These past few years have been rugged for lots of people. Yes, even the ones who “won.”

I am hard pressed to find folks, of any political stripe, who are measurably happier, less stressed, more joyful, more connected, more magnanimous, less anxious, or more body-mind-spirit healthy than they were four years ago.

I can scroll through my social media feed and see clearly: the majority of folks seem kind of exhausted and queasy. The bravado, even the most arrogant or bullying kind, has a kind of tinny, hollow ring. There’s a defensiveness, even in the certainty of endless argument, that feels off-kilter. We’re battling on, for some reason we long ago forgot, but with grave wounds, faltering, bleeding out. We have been sapped of some essential life energy — or some would say: we have allowed ourselves to be sapped of some essential life energy.

The hard truth, we come to re-discover, is that victory can’t buy peace, because real peace — the kind that rests, warm and soft right under your chest—is, mystifyingly, not dependent on winning. It begins somewhere else, long before any victory is ever guaranteed.