Food For Thought – Going Politics-Free?

I have started writing many blog posts lately but I resist getting political because there will be people who will love it and then there will be people who will hate it, depending on what side you are on.  I know what I’ve felt inside has been sadness and anger.  I’m not giddy or happy about what is happening in our country, or as a humanity in general. It puts me in great fear as to how we got so far apart. I knew I had to do something about my state of mind and emotions because I was falling apart myself.    

So at the beginning of the week, I told myself I was going to go politics-free.  No news, no conversations, no social media.  It lasted for about an hour until someone called and the first thing we start talking about was politics.  Did I stop them?  No.   Then I just happened to hop on Facebook to see what was going on and there it was again.  So then I realized that this is going to be harder than I thought.  Furthermore, going politics-free was going to be nearly impossible.  It’s everywhere.

So after some contemplation I realized three things:  

First, in my earlier days, we would vote, someone would win, then everyone would go on with their lives without much thought about the president, politics or Washington.  Now, it consumes most people’s thoughts each day.  We are angry, we are defending, we are shaking our fists at the other side, calling each other names. Politics was taking up too much space in my brain and it was affecting me emotionally.

Second, I realized that all of us, both sides, really don’t know what is going on in Washington unless we bring our beds and live in the oval office, kind of like Elon Musk does, supposedly.  We really don’t know if that is true either.   We can’t believe the news as they are going to tell us what we want to hear.  So we have to always wonder if what we hear is the truth.

Third, there really is very little we can do at this point.  We could protest, we could write letters to our representatives, we could vote.  But on a day-to-day basis, there is really nothing we can do. It is essentially out of our control until the mid-term elections.

Don’t get me wrong, I am a worrier, and I’m a master at it.  I was in so much fear and anger.  I had to do something.  My old self left the building.  So I searched for a counselor and it has been great.  I can’t go politics-free because I want to know what is going on, at least somewhat.  But my thoughts are not filled with politics as much as it used to be, and I am just carrying on and moving forward. 

How about you?   How much time is your brain filled with thoughts of anger, hate and/or fear?  Or maybe you are happy with what is happening right now.  How can we come together and both sides be happy? I see so much hate, the left hates the right, the right hates the left.  My friend used to say, “I hate hate”.  But the problem is that we look at it like one side would be right and one side would be wrong.  Any ideas how we can start thinking about fixing our Divided States of America and get back to the United States of America?   I don’t know how that is ever going to change until we get a leader in the White House that we both can get behind.  It sure is not the present administration nor the previous one for that matter.

Just remember, our country has made it through harder times than this and people lived to tell the story.  Let’s hope we have a really good story to tell. 

Just food for thought for you.