Forefathers as Mentors?

With a quick, energetic jolt, the SCOTUS decision to reverse Roe v. Wade rocked most of us at our core, at least for a second. The impact erupted with positive and negative energies as questions about what it means for our future were raised across our country. My daughter told me a woman in her office was jumping for joy with the news because she was so excited. Juxtapose that with the silent, uncontrollable tears that fell from my eyes for a few seconds and you’ll see the plethora of possible reactions appear. Regardless of your position on Roe (or any other matter), your thoughts, feelings and experiences, along with the people who have influenced them, have shaped your particular perspective, and each one of us has a view of our world that is solidly backed by vetted personal truths, as discordant as those experiences may seem or actually be from our own. This is usually where we seek to establish boundaries so their ‘wrong’ views can’t ‘harm’ us.

As the news broke, I was instantly reminded of how I felt the morning after DJT – the biggest symbol of Ego we have in this country – was duly elected as our President in 2016. Mind-numbing disbelief coursed through me, and it really felt as if the mouth of my energetic body was hanging open alongside my physical self. I felt disappointed and angry at the world, but when I began to express my thoughts about it, I was ‘guided’ toward some deeply rooted wisdom instead. My desire to lash out was swiftly replaced by a surface understanding of our ‘collective power’ and the sheer magnitude of what we had just produced together, as a nation. I was suddenly ‘aware’ of exactly how the election had lined up in his favor. Simply viewed, most of the energy (as a whole) was placed on DJT. Even Hillary Clinton’s energy was laser focused toward ‘the deej’. When I take time to breathe and remember that the universe naturally recognizes all energy, with no separation of positive/negative, it becomes crystal clear that it is the transfer and movement of the energy itself that tips our natural scales one way or another. Whether we loved or hated what DJT was bringing, we were all considering his potential impact on our way of life; inadvertently putting our energies toward him as our leader. Same goes for the Roe energy.

That 2020 ‘deep understanding’ landed on me with a thud today, as I once again ‘realized’ that the fearful energy that swirls around big world changes – especially for a long-held, controversial precedent like the right to an abortion – was energy that unintentionally supported the effort to reverse it. The fact that I spent more time thinking and talking about what I didn’t want to happen than what I ideally hoped for, gave the ‘change’ movement extra power. Seriously?! I was right back where I started–once again, coming full circle on a lesson I thought I’d already learned. This time around, I’m packing an intention to understand the roots of where we all connect with each other, and a desire to breathe into the cloudy areas of conflict that block my ability to see past my own judgments (or to see them at all, since they always seem so naturally justified). And breathing…

These kinds of thoughts have strengthened my humorous-but-true belief that the only thing we currently agree on as human beings is the notion that ‘a lot of people are stupid’. Listen to any conversation about ‘us’ for very long and you’ll hear that conclusion drawn over and over. We don’t often concur with each other about what is valuable. Or what is acceptable. Or tolerable. Or forgivable. We generally perceive opposing viewpoints with a lot more judgment than curiosity, and this is where we might be missing some serious soul substance. From the Soul perspective, this also closes us off from knowing that simply breathing into this ‘uncomfortable’ space can double as fertile ground for our inner, spiritual growth (and help to everyone else’s too!). The dichotomy itself can be frustrating to ‘allow’, but at its core, it is simply the product of our natural human progression, and a glimpse into how uniquely different each of us really are, by design.

Only rarely, do we actually investigate why a person thinks the way they do, even though we casually pose the question as if there is no conceivable answer. We leave it hanging in a cloud of disbelief that lacks consideration and keeps us feeling ‘separate’ at best. When it comes to ourselves, however, we are usually more apt to consider (or defend) the roots of our choices before applying our judgment–at least outwardly. Inwardly, self-judgment is alive and thriving–in fact, it’s doing quite well with the majority of us at some level. Our ‘outward and inner selves’ fight for power and control as we try to only present the parts of ourselves we deem acceptable for public scrutiny. It’s harsh out there!

This is an indirect result of the ‘quick to cancel culture’ that exists to ‘educate and protect’ us right now. It is staunchly unforgiving to the whole person, and to life’s twisty tendencies. Failing to see beyond immediate, emotional reactions limits our ability to see the broader, more soul-based experiences unfold. We miss out on getting to ‘watch’ our many connections appear before us. Even though I can relate to our instinct to ‘remove the intolerable’ from our immediate environment, and I have often hoped that shame will somehow create deep understanding for people, something keeps growing inside me that knows that’s not really how it works. The only real agent of change is love.

Today, I am mourning a constitutional right that I never truly believed I needed to fight to keep as ‘Law’. It resonates from deep within me as I ponder the depth and breadth of my/our own ignorance. Like most of us, I am a busy person who cares deeply about the things that matter to me. I like to believe that I think responsibly about my family, my work, my community and my environment. The reality is that there are only so many hours in a day, and days in a week, that we are physically unable to do/think/learn/help most of the issues and causes that cross our minds as valuable. We are each given an individual life to live, and with few exceptions, we are each the best person to decide what we should be doing with our time. If we can listen from our hearts, we remain connected through passion and purpose. This is where I endeavor to direct my energy, and the ‘fight’ I strive to support on a regular basis. As of today, I am also feeling a new passion and responsibility toward restoring the federal rights we just lost, and an interest in the general workability of the ‘Laws of our Land’, along with our ‘Education Standards’.

This ‘fight’ for contraceptive rights was underway when I was born in 1968, and I was 5 years old when it became ’Law’. As we circle back 50 years later, our collective emotions are now erupting in waves that desire to take some type of form, even if we don’t know its shape. I’m ‘reminded’ that some people are right now dreaming of providing a safe home for women who now have no other choices, and I can put energy into hoping those facilities are filled with the nurturing support they'll require for growing and maintaining healthy self-esteem in forced conditions. This feels like the only real energy I can produce right now that ‘helps’ the situation as it stands today, but I hope that energy gains momentum.

Our ability to work within the ‘legal system’ and ‘government’ our ‘forefathers’ endeavored to create, has finally reached a level of absurdity where ridiculous laws are the entire subject of actual books and the world we live in feels more often like a game of Monopoly than something we can personally affect. I’d also like to remind us that this was a group of men with vastly differing ideas about values and the direction our country should take. My Point? They worked together to actually make it happen much better than we do now. Absent agreement, they considered and debated as they created ‘Law”.) Our SCOTUS claims to be taking a constitutionally purist view on their ROE reversal. If they are truly holding that intention, however, then why aren't the female justices being excluded from the conversation? The non-whites should be out too, right?

The original constitution maintains that the votes of those individuals are not only inconsequential, but not anticipated to gain value into the future. Our forefathers did anticipate the fight for power that would develop from our ever-expanding Egos, and they made best efforts to mitigate it. If we are going to look at the intentions of these men for anything, my vote goes to the context they tried to provide for conflict. Back then, a duel to the death was ‘respected and honored’ with ‘specific rules’ in a way that we would never be willing to adhere to today. Filibuster, anyone?! Is this a symbol of the decline of our collective integrity or a comment on the initial flaws in our forefathers’ structure? Hard to say, but the fact is, since 2020, our triggers have become wholly impatient and our desire to ‘win’ at all costs has never been so apparent as it is in our current US political arena. In what other group in our country can we flat out refuse to compromise on the structure that governs individual lives because we don’t like what the other side stands for?

Where are we headed in the world, together? How will we each ‘weather’ the next steps in this ongoing journey for Soul/Ego Balance? How many of us are genuinely joyful in this Roe decision? I believe I’d like to understand why… How many of us (like me) realize only now how much we have taken this ‘body autonomy’ for granted? It’s time to pause and breathe. As humans, it is our habit to find judgment for the things we don’t accomplish, even though we know we can’t accomplish everything we’d like. With that point in front of us, it’s clear that our minds/thoughts hold tremendous power. The purposeful alignment of our mental and physical energies can not only provide a level of support for our own lives, it can help us steer the collective energies as well, and it’s fun to see those energies ‘collect’.

I don’t claim to have the answers, but I know that we each have a lot more control over our environments than we have been taught to believe. From that elemental awareness, we can each tap into the power that generates from simply accepting the things around us, especially if we hope to affect their course. Above all else, know that your mind and your body belong to YOU and you are its ultimate governor, no matter what our Forefathers might have to say about the State of our Union today. Or what the members of the Supreme Court are willing to overlook in order to make this change. My perspective? Shaking our world from the inside out feels ‘wild’ right now, but it provides great opportunities for transformation.