Secret Election Plan: Humility?
If you’ve ever toured the castle up the California coast, the shuttle passes the lavish grounds where livestock roamed that were kept by William Randolph Hearst — which might make it easier to relate to the Vernon Howard story about the king who used his wealth for similar purposes. One day while this king and his entourage were passing by his herd, he spotted a sheep with luxurious growth of hair, and he asked his crew to shear that sheep so that a pristine coat could be made for him.
A few days later he was elated once he handled the garment that they could craft given his choice of sheep. He was then informed that they were unable to use the wool from the animal the king had specified and had to make the coat from another animal, and the king was forever dejected to be unable to have pride that his judgment led to such a magnificent creation.
With a big election month ending — which seems a more honest description than an upcoming election day — imagine if 2021 turned out to be the year when the principles you’ve been fighting for revealed the closest thing to heavenirvana on earth you could hope for, and you were glad to have been so politically active as to help make it possible…
Except it was the Other Party who gave birth to a new society.
There is no shortage of people trying to convince others to support candidates and policies. But if the improvements came because others were right, would you be more glad for the benefits or more sad for the lack of legacy?
Marianne Williamson (who tired to be nominated for the upcoming election) once wrote of the time she was in a cafe asking for the ingredients to make a drink to help her bad sore throat when a doctor sitting nearby suggested they go to the adjacent drugstore for something he was able to prescribe that she really wanted but for some reason had had difficulty getting. She concluded afterward it was the perfect solution because she had asked for instant healing but didn’t receive it because it would have been too threatening to her belief system.
Are we ready to have others change their minds? And even if we are, do we recognize what we’re asking of them? Do we realize what we’re implicitly asking of another when piling on evidence against their beliefs? I’ve requested it, but I was confident in what I already believed, so I was unafraid of my preparation even if I decided I was wrong. And how often do others make that request, or are prepared to do so? (I must have been a real mutant to be that unique.) I’ve considered my conviction enough to make that my secret plan to victory — and glad that I was prepared, since I don’t have the resources to persuade in conventional ways.
Political cartoons and talk shows can make compelling cases against the other side more easily than for their own, because depending on where you draw the lines, it is easy to find deal-breakers on the other side, while expressing much milder regret for unfortunate things your candidate has said. One of the major-party candidates for President is so obviously very much better than the other. I can say that because, while I can find fault with the words and actions of both, those of one of them are so much easier for me to classify as disqualifiers.
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One indicator that might stand out from media noise is someone changing their mind during polarization. A newly sworn citizen I’ve known for years changed her ideology upon being faced with the responsibility of voting, so she relied on a past practice of decision making which had served her well. When asking what was best for the country, she saw a dark pall over the name of one of the major parties and a bright light over the other. She also relied on her intuitive impressions of the “bright light” candidate involved rather than how he was depicted in media she had been familiar with.
Of course one need not be faced with that dramatic a shift in one’s official status to change; to me the real trick is for anyone with long-held beliefs to invite such impressions and to trust them when receiving them — whether our convictions are with traditional or alternative religious approaches, or elsewhere.
My friend’s new-found fervor for my ideology is greater than mine — or at least may be built on a firmer foundation than mine seems to be. Whereas her commitment is newly charged, my long beliefs also have long experience with trying to humbly ask if I may be mistaken — but I have to remember that the certainty and volume of others don’t (necessarily) correlate with research. After her exhortations to act on or read certain materials, I felt more challenged to wonder if my commitment to it is sufficient for the country…whereas when spending time around those who didn’t share it, it was easy to feel stronger by comparison. Maybe facing questions like this are the real reason we don’t allow in commentary that could really change us. It feels very silly to expect I can come remotely close to changing that on this page, but isn’t it the least I can do if my new citizen friend considered her one-in-millions vote in her state a serious responsibility?
The very day after writing the draft of this I had a sudden realization of wanting to change personally in certain ways — ways I had stayed the same because they and how I figured they appeared to others seemed familiar and had served me well for practices that I was reevaluating. I couldn’t help but compare how big such commitments must feel to a voter being asked to jettison long-held standards. That comparison was more than an observational reminder; I saw a direct connection to my intention to writing something different as millions were making a choice.
One clue about the secret plan is revealed in another paraphrased Vernon Howard quote I’ve never seen elsewhere: for every authentic value there is a counterfeit. Thanks, Nostradamus.
