Happy Healthy YOU
Article content
Kelly Spencer - Happy Healthy YOU
(A wellness column by Kelly Spencer: writer, life coach, yoga & meditation teacher, holistic healer and a mindful life enthusiast!)
The quake of last week's U.S. Presidential electoral outcome seems to have shaken with seismic energy not just a nation but radiating a ripple effect with immense magnitude extended out globally.
The entire world watched for the last 20 months, an election that at times seemed comical altered with gasps of disbelief.
From email and foundation scandals to racism and verbal admittance of past sexual assault, the entire election platform was like no other. Rather than a positive and enthusiastic support for a political party and their respective candidate, there was a highly publicized hateful attack approach playing on the fears of inequality, economics, materialism, immigration and terrorist threat.
The opposing stance from each party was aggressively paradoxical and antagonistic. A nation (and onlookers) squared off.
Literally, it seemed like a square had formed.
On one side of the square, supporters had chosen a leader with decades of public service. And despite being labelled a Washington Elite with implied scandals of corruption, they supported a more embracing government agenda with a liberal mindset of equality and protecting rights of all.
On the direct opposite side of this square, a candidate was chosen to represent them with zero public service experience and a non-politically correct approach, in which many in his own political party disavowed. A voice of change and a fight against the status-quo. The supporters, despite their candidate’s use of racially charged rhetoric, misogyny and claims of ties to Russia, embraced the change, abundance and protection promised to them.
The other sides of the square, between these two, were left confused while their heads turned from side to side, quite literally in between the two oppositions; listening, confused and contemplating. As it turns out, just under half of the United States chose not vote at all.
A revolution is a fundamental change in political power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time when the population rises up in revolt against the current authorities.
The majority of people, or popular vote, was won by one candidate, while the electoral vote went in a revolutionary style to the other candidate.
With such lack of accord and an exaggerated divide like none witnessed in many years, everyone is watching with anticipated anxiousness, knowing the outcome will affect all people of the world. The days following the results show a vastly segregated world trembling with unease.
While many are peacefully pleased and hopeful for the fruition of the promises of change, jobs and safety, there are numerous reports of increased divisiveness, hate crimes of xenophobic, bigoted and racial nature that have occurred in the name of the President-Elect. And while many challenge that this campaign was not steeped in racism or concern for maintaining white supremacy, the Ku Klux Klan is empowered and claiming “(his) win has united our people” and a rally by the KKK in North Carolina has been announced to celebrate the electoral win.
Peaceful and violent protests have erupted throughout the country. Tens of thousands are marching in protest of the results in many major cities.
When such contrary and contrasting energies have been brought to light, change is impending and revolution and evolution are on the horizon.
“Light up the darkness” - Bob Marley
You may have noticed that I did not mention either name of the political parties or their elected Presidential candidates. I do so with purpose. We are not our elected officials and we are not the labels of the political parties. We are of one human race.
They are only a representation of the truth of the people’s current state and any change that is required starts with each individual.
I don't experience anger and fear well and quite frankly don't want to feel that way, but I believe we have to have a truthful look at what is, as is. Acknowledging the darkness that has been exposed with an honest reflection of the outcry by both sides of the square, I believe is imperative.
Sociocultural evolution is "the process by which structural reorganization is affected through time, eventually producing a form or structure which is qualitatively different from the ancestral form.” - Andrey Korotayev, author of World Religions and Social Evolution of the Old World.
Whether politics or otherwise, when we feel helpless in a giant world, what can we do when trying to bring harmony to such divide? In midst of a revolution, how do we bring societal evolution?
It is said the first step to solving a problem is admitting there is a problem. And while I give credence to the necessity of keeping love in our hearts to shift hate and racism, I do believe the discussion of racism however uncomfortable, must be on the table.
By the end of 1861, the U.S. had 19 slave-free states and 15 states with human chattel slavery. When slavery was abolished in North America, the evolution of equality was a century-long painful battle of racism. Until 1960s, black and white segregation was enforced. In fact, the last black segregated school in Canada was not closed until 1983 in Nova Scotia.
My parents lived in a time where there were two different drinking fountains with large signs over them for “whites” and “blacks.” And as much as this boggles my mind, I acknowledge that not everyone has a loving, equality mindset and belief for all humans, which my parents gave to my sister and me. I believe that we must also acknowledge that no one is born with racism or hate for another and that the intergenerational mindset of racism and slavery has also been imposed on many.
Racism exists. Racial rhetoric and disrespect to others is alive and has been given a voice. Even locally, a Tillsonburg teacher shared this past week about profanity by students in their classroom while chanting the name of the U.S. President-Elect.
We must have constructive and thoughtful conversations that are crucial for evolving from this. We are in the midst of a huge cultural shift and an evolution within the revolution. Intelligent fact-based conversations need to happen. Truth must be driven gently and honestly with loving-kindness at wheel.
The heart of the matter is, that the heart matters. People are feeling hurt, scared, forgotten and invalidated on both sides. I pray and meditate of the jagged corners of the opposing square sides to curve and soften to start forming a circle of oneness and connection.
In next week’s article I will examine how we can peacefully move forward in heartfelt compassion and understanding with the immense power that the voice of truth, love and hope hold.
(If you would like to see an article on a specific topic, please email kelly@indigolounge.ca)