It's election day, 2018 and I have high hopes that after today the onslaught of ugly, hurtful, and mostly unbelievable campaigning will stop. Anyone else feel battered and bruised by it all? Yes, I do have a race or two that I am watching, hoping that they might be an influence of calm in the chaos. But in a lot of ways, I just can't watch.
So I am asking myself, how can we respond in a way that brings life, and hope, and even change? I am not so worried about our temporal problems. For me, there is a moral element that is screaming for attention. I ache for our loss of humanity in the whole affair.
I remember when I moved from my familiar city life to a small town in rural Montana. I had been trained by my surroundings growing up to never make eye contact with other people in cars. Cars were simply obstacles to maneuver around. There was no concept that inside those cars were people, people I might know or that might be waving and offering connection. People who might need to know you are happy to see them.
It didn't take long for me to be labeled stuck up because I didn't make eye contact or acknowledge their existence when I drove down main street. It was a wake up call for me. I started noticing how often I viewed people as obstacles, like when I went shopping, or standing in lines. I didn't look at people as people at all.
When you see people as obstacles, you can't see their circumstance, or offer compassion. I wonder, if we opened our eyes to the look, really look at the people around us, would our politics become more civil?
