We go through this round every 4 years or so and things get stirred up, passions aroused, and I suppose in a democracy that's how it should be
Things got very stirred up with the UK referendum and with the recent American presidential election in very similar ways
I'm not really in a position to go into the politics of it. But I noticed a question come up in me that spiked my attention
The question 'is politics from the people to the representatives' or is it 'from the representatives to the people'.
Do we give the power to the leaders, is this what is happening during an election? Or are we electing, for convenience one person who can represent our views? Are we abdicating power (our power) to others, or are we asking someone to speak our views?
I think the difference can be quite subtle, but I feel its an important one. Its easy to 'believe in' others and expect them to sort things out, to make things better, (to make America Great Again).
So every 4 years or so we pick one person, or one party, that's going to sort things out. And then we sit back and behave in exactly the same way, we have been doing for the last 4 years. We vote for change, as long as that change is done by others.
So we can continue to think, speak and behave in the same way as we have always done, whilst expecting others to make the changes. My feeling is that, this is a great shame.
We vote every 4 years; but we speak to people every day, we take actions every day. Every day we decide if we are going to make our conversations positive or negative, nurturing or toxic. We decide if we are going to thank the bus driver or not, if we are going to curse the other road user or remain calm, if we are going to spread gossip or support people. If we are going to speak well or ill of people.
Where we are going to spend our money, who we are going to bank with, who supplies our electricity, who we are going to get our groceries from, are we going to support charities, do we volunteer at the hospice/school/scout group/community centre........... the list can go on and on
We may not feel that we decide on these things, but we do, we just may not be conscious of it. Every one of these small actions can make a difference and we get to make them every day, over and over, not every 4 years
I feel we have a duty to vote, but I feel that voting for others to make things better when we are not doing our active bit to make better what we can, results in a dependency on others. Where we place unrealistic expectations on our politicians that they can never live up to.
But this is not easy, to take on being as positive as we can be every day takes time, commitment and thought. I get it wrong more than I get it right. Its easier to give it away to others and say 'make things better for me'
But I feel we have to share the idea of a better future. And that however skillful, our current way of living we can make it more so.
With persistence, reflection and effort, we have the potential to be a cause of positive change, every day.
