Ann: John?
John McCain: Hello, Annie, long time, no type.
Ann: Whatcha been doing?
John: Just the usual, dancing with the angels, sittin’ out the crowds, waitin’ for an opening to reach down to you folks still fightin’ the good fight.
And it is a good fight, you know. It’s not just a futile exercise and then you die. No, no, don’t get sucked into that old saw. Life is directional and that direction is upward, in a spiral, yes, where the downward parts feel terminal, but, indeed, they serve to fuel the next rung up, and that is what you are doing now.
On a personal note, Annie, I can see you are feeling the helplessness of it, seemingly hopeless in the face of pain and death, incoherence, instability, and ugly exposure.
But that is only the top layer, girl. It’s only the wrapping that we must peel off so that we can reach down for the gold, for the heart that is the heart of Christ, the world energy, the essence of every religion that ever offered something true to its followers.
Pay no attention to the blighters that would diminish the experience. The experience is everything. Everything until we get to the full essence, and then there is nothing else.
Open yourself to it, that light, the light that can imbue every pore of your being until form, circumstance, and history have no meaning. There is only now, presence and union.
You will come back home fully formed and emboldened with what you have gained from all your have experienced, from the decisions you have made, good and not so good, and triumphs that went unnoticed in what passes for civilization on our planet.
This is when, this is where real civilization will take you in, back to the mother ship as it were, back with the essence of another life under your belt and a wider and brighter ambiance surrounding your being.
It is not all for nothing. You may see your flag faltering and think you are losing, but it is not so. This fight, this political fight for democracy is a fight to retain our own level playing field, the one we were granted at birth. What we don’t see is that every field is level when we set up our life mission. Whether on a mountain, in a refugee camp, or at the bottom of a pyramid, we move on, we must move on.
So when the rug is pulled out from underneath you, embrace the challenge, shift gears as necessary and keep moving. As Auntie* would say, “Keep on keepin’ on,” for that is our holy mission, our joy ,and our life’s work however our life circumstance may fall out.
Ann: Tell me about Joe Biden.
John: Annie, you’re not listening to me. I just did. This is a new wrinkle. How will you handle it? What is the way forward? Embrace the moment, find your way through, the way that feels clean no matter how many howl at your decision and actions. Follow it out and you will know.
Ann: Yes, but will he?
John: Not your problem Annie, but yes, he will. Be it stay or leave, he will make the call and those around him will make their own. Trump will not win. Whoever opposes him, even a ham sandwich, has a better chance of becoming president.
Keep the faith, adjust, and don’t’ moan, for god’s sake. Never could abide that. Take it on, keep on keepin’ on, and the solution will be revealed, one way or the other.
July 3, 2024