How I Might Navigate the Next Four Years*

​Ever since November 9, 2016—the first time the American electoral system slapped me in the face—I’ve been working with various ways of living in Trumpworld. A lot of it has felt like driving an exquisitely sensitive car: ease up on the fury just a little, give my latest thoughts a little more gas by posting them to my blog, let thoughts go, ignore this but not that, news blackouts/brownouts.

Things have changed since then.

For one, I’m now nine years into my Zen practice, which involves (for me, among other things) working with my emotions. A useful thing. For another, an executive order from yesterday effectively rendered me and many loved ones “not real” as far as American government is concerned.** A bad thing. This enrages me.

Yesterday I worked with that rage in zazen, and a new way of approaching the next four years arose.

1. I will devote myself to living my life as it is—tending it, and other people, so they blossom.
2. I will try to devote precisely the right level of attention to Trumpworld: not an iota less than necessary to detect oncoming threats/needs for action, not an iota more than it warrants.

This will not be easy. I have heard Zen teachers speak of life’s stiffest challenges as rich opportunities to practice. The next four years, it follows, will be one hell of an opportunity.

That’s all I’ve got so far. We’ll see how it works. What about you?
 
*Or the next eight, or 12, or whatever. Trumpworld might outlive Trump.
**Yes, the executive order refers specifically to transgender. But if you think Trumpworld will distinguish between transgender (including my trans friends) and non-binary (me), think again.