A Disturbance in the Force
There's a disturbance in the force. Can you sense it? There's a significant problem in our country.
Historically, we've been a nation of individualism and diverse opinions, but we've always come together around fundamental principles that supersede personal interests. When those principles clashed with personal agendas, we prioritized the broader view. Al Gore's concession to George Bush and John McCain's to Barack Obama are prime examples. We've respected judicial decisions, even when they were difficult to accept and went against our interests.
We listened to inspiring and powerful speeches from our leaders, regardless of whether we agreed with them. We were lifted up by the beauty of the English language, which inspired us to be better people. “Ask not what your country can do for you . . .”
Unfortunately, we now witness our leaders displaying behavior reminiscent of petulant children. Their speeches often resemble the taunts of middle-school bullies rather than the refined discourse of statesmen. Often, those speeches contain incomplete sentences that make no sense yet get great applause. We are experiencing a dumbing down of our country by people who are supposed to be leading us toward the better angels of our nature.
One political party seems to disregard the lives of the Ukrainian people for their own interests. They appear willing to allow the mass killing of Ukrainians, child abductions, and assaults on women to achieve their political objectives. Using lives as bargaining chips is evil and immoral, and it needs to be called out more forcefully.
One political party has consistently voiced concerns about the risks of open borders and called for action. However, when a potential solution arose, they dismissed it, fearing it might favor their rivals. They chose to let the very dangers they warned us about continue for a year until the election. According to their rhetoric, the migrants and drugs coming across our border are killing our children and posing a threat to our country, yet they are willing to let those dangers continue in order to serve their own interests.
Two-year-olds often act out without caring about the effects on those around them, a behavior characteristic of their narrow perspective and emerging egos. Thankfully, they usually outgrow this phase... sometimes. Now, we see adults throwing political tantrums with disregard for the effect on others to get what they want.
I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened. –Obi Wan Kenobe
Forty million Americans have stopped attending church in the past 25 years. That’s something like 12 percent of the population, and it represents the largest concentrated change in church attendance in American history.
According to Jake Meador in a recent Atlantic article, The Misunderstood Reason Millions of Americans Stopped Going to Church, contemporary America simply isn’t set up to promote mutuality, care, or common life. Rather, it is designed to maximize individual accomplishment as defined by professional and financial success. Such a system leaves precious little time or energy for forms of community that don’t contribute to one’s own professional life or, as one ages, the professional prospects of one’s children. Workism reigns in America, and because of it, community in America, religious community included, is a math problem that doesn’t add up.
Maybe this has something to do with the disturbance in the force. I sense a great spiritual vacuum in the country. Note that I said spiritual, not religious. Religion, while it has the potential to enrich our lives, often divides us and pits us against each other.
It’s unusual that I would bring this up since I have not been a churchgoer since my childhood. I’ve lived in my five senses most of my life. Anything I couldn’t touch, taste, smell, see, or hear wasn’t all that important. It’s only been in my later years that I have become interested in my soul.
I am grateful that my life has expanded as I grow older. If I stay in my five senses, my life can only contract because my five senses will contract. That’s what happens when we age. I keep asking people to repeat themselves and my optometrist suggested cataract surgery. But there’s a Hero’s Journey waiting for me in my soul.
Age has given me the perspective to see clearly what’s going on in our country and avoid joining the crowds with the signs and vulgar t-shirts that look like the mob in the Frankenstein movie. My ego is still alive and well, but it has receded in these later years, and my life is better for it. As we age, we can see from a higher viewpoint, not through the lens of our ego but from our soul.
Connie Zweig, in her book, The Inner Work of Age, Shifting From Role to Soul, relates this story of The Rainmaker from a Chinese Tale:
The Rainmaker: A Chinese Tale
There was a great drought. For months there had not been a drop of rain, and the situation became catastrophic. The Catholics made processions, the Protestants made prayers, and the Chinese burned joss sticks and shot off guns to frighten away the demons of the drought, but with no result. Finally, the Chinese said, “We will fetch the rainmaker.” From another province a dried-up old man appeared. The only thing he asked for was a quiet little house somewhere, and he locked himself in for three days. On the fourth day the clouds gathered, and there was a great snowstorm. The town was so full of rumors about the wonderful rainmaker that a visitor went to ask the man how he had done it. “They call you the rainmaker. Will you tell me how you made the snow?” The man responded, “I did not make the snow. I am not responsible.” “But what have you done these three days?” “Oh, I can explain that. I come from another country where things are in order. Here they are out of order. They are not as they should be by the ordinance of heaven. Therefore, the whole country is not in Tao, and I also am not in the natural order of things because I am in a disordered country. So, I had to wait three days until I was back in Tao, and then naturally the rain came.” —
Paraphrased from Carl Jung, in Mysterium Coniunctionis, retelling a story told to him by Richard Wilhelm
This is a tale of a wise Elder as a tuning fork, a man aligning with something greater. Here it is called the Tao. You can call it something else, but it’s all the same. He knows the world needs to come back into harmony. This story offers us a vision of a Spiritual Elder who looks within and recognizes when he is out of the Tao and knows how to return to the Tao. The rainmaker feels the disturbance in the Force inside himself. He feels it in the world that he is visiting. And he knows that he is not separate from this dried, broken world.
In the 1988 PBS series, Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth, Bill Moyers asked Campbell, “Do you ever have sympathy for the man who has no invisible means of support?” Campbell replied, “Yes, he’s the one who evokes compassion - poor chap. To see him stumbling around when the waters of immortal life are right there evokes pity.” Moyers responded skeptically, “Right there? You believe that?” Campbell replied, “Yes, the waters of eternal life are right there if you’re following your bliss and experiencing the joy of life every day.”
I've refrained from expressing political views on this blog. Upon introspection, I realized my reasoning mirrors that of many of our politicians who withhold their views due to fear of violence towards themselves and their families or a Tweet that could ruin their career. While my situation isn't as dire, it's a contributing factor. I had to admit that I was afraid of losing subscribers or friends. I’m not happy with that insight, but I’m glad I’ve pulled it out from the shadows and faced it. Our voice counts in the conversation and the voting booth. Let’s use it wisely.
Maybe we need more rainmakers in our country working hard to bring themselves back into harmony with something greater than themselves.