Emotion, Acceptance, and Action

Today I am so angry. And sad.

Tough emotions to lead with. But it’s just the truth, and my practice asks that I be honest about that and feel it fully.

I don’t intend to express political views here, but sometimes it’s more important to speak than avoid offense.

This week the Supreme Court reversed Roe v Wade, and although I knew it was likely, its actual arrival makes me weep. For me, this is about women, rights, and safety. I weep for the marginalized women and families whom this will hit the hardest.

I weep today for all women. Women continue to be second-class citizens in the ethos of this and so many countries. Despite progress, we still see that culturally, women's experience doesn’t really matter. Especially brown and black women.

Sometimes this disrespect seems so obvious it screams in our faces. But often, it is subtle, and we are seduced into thinking that women have equity with men and that the patriarchy now cares about women. It does not. If it did, there would not be a patriarchy that gives rise to laws that take basic rights away from women.

I grieve over who we are becoming in our country. We were once the gold standard for at least trying to value freedom and independence. Today it seems freedom is a cheap word of convenience, lacking any guardrails.

• We want freedom as business owners to maximize profit.

• We want freedom as employees to earn a living wage.

• We want freedom for our business to pollute with impunity.

• We want freedom to breathe clean air and drink clean water.

• We want freedom to purchase and carry any firearm we want.

• We want freedom to have schools be safe places for our children – and malls, grocery stores, movie theatres, and concerts be safe places for all of us.

• We want freedom to hold fair elections.

• We want freedom to change the outcome of elections when we don’t like the results.

• We (women) want freedom to choose what happens to their bodies.

• We want freedom to choose whether we wear a mask or not during a pandemic.

We say we want the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But this doesn’t apply to everyone. Those with power do not want these basic rights for everyone if it threatens their position of power.

This news, and much news these days, ask us to dig deep to find a response.

I ask myself, what does my practice say?

The first step, I believe, is to look directly at how we feel and accept it, not to shy away.

And the second step is action; what do we do with what these feelings spark?

But it must be wise action. We cannot take wise action without first sitting with what we feel. When we sit with our anger, we find that underneath it is caring; we are angry because we care about something. Any action we take must be fueled by that care, not by blind anger, revenge, or hatred.

People can take action at the polls, in the streets, on social media, in letters to congress, and on news outlets to express and support their feelings.

That first step, accepting what we feel and facing it, leads to clarity. Clarity then leads to wise action rather than destructive action.

Can we take action without doing harm? May it be so; real lives depend on it.

You’re welcome to leave comments or your own reflections below … and sign up for my newsletter, above if you haven’t already.