January 8, 2024
Dear Leland and Everett,
After a fulfilling couple of weeks of traveling to visit relatives and celebrate holidays, we return to our normal routines today. I will say that I am glad to get back, which I think is a good thing: I find vacations serve as a good litmus test for the quality of my normal life. If I deeply regret coming home from vacation, I probably need to make some substantial life changes. While I very much enjoyed our holidays, I am also eager to get back to ‘work’, which I take as a positive sign regarding the life I’ve engineered.
So now we enter 2024, a year I anticipate will be challenging for most Americans. This is an election year, and as of now the most likely outcome is that former President Donald Trump will be nominated to run against current President Joe Biden. Given the change and turmoil in the world today, I would anticipate any election year to be consequential. The presence of Donald Trump on this particular ballot makes this election likely to be particularly fraught; I do not exaggerate when I say I think it entirely possible we experience a constitutional crisis regardless who wins.
Everything (and I mean EVERYTHING) involving Trump seems to trigger both loyal Democrats and loyal Republicans. I have found it generally impossible to have a rational or logical conversation with loyalists from either party in regard to anything related to the former president. Otherwise very rational and reasonable people routinely turn stark raving mad when the topic turns to Trump; I’ve never encountered a topic so triggering and divisive. As a result, I’ve shifted my perspective on the matter: I try to avoid wading into the specifics of any particular debate and focus instead on why Trump looms so large in our collective psyche.
My overarching belief is that Trump is a symptom, a symbol we’ve imbued with all our frustrations, fears, and sadness. Trump allows Democrats to believe (or pretend to believe) that if Trump would just go away we could all feel safe again. Similarly, Trump allows Republicans to believe (or pretend to believe) that electing and empowering Trump will allow us to feel safe again.
The truth is far more unpleasant. Our institutions appear to be rotting, stuck in the post-WWII era and as of yet incapable of making the jump to the internet era. The world is moving beyond American hegemony (for better and worse) as those who seek a multipolar world look to destabilize places like the Ukraine (invaded by Russia, partly baited by the threat of NATO expansion), Palestine (under Israeli assault after raiding Israel with the support of Iran), and the Suez Canal (currently only being navigated by Chinese ships due to piracy) in order to advance their interests at America’s (and America’s allies’) expense. Technology and particularly Artificial Intelligence are bringing change at a breathtaking pace. Social media in particular and technology more broadly appear to be making us miserable by hacking our programing to keep us angry and scared in order to keep us attached to our devices. Nobody knows how to solve any of these problems, and so it is easier to blame and demonize our political enemies than to honestly face the uncertainty in front of us.
And so we’ve manifested Trump. Trump means different things to different individuals or tribes. Most broadly though, arguing about Trump allows us to avoid the hard truths we wish not to face. The truth is that Trump does not possess the power that either his supporters nor his detractors wish to believe. But we empower Trump with our attention. If we stopped paying attention to Trump, he would go away. But we are not prepared to withdraw our attention, and so Trump will be a fixture in our lives in 2024.
What I hope we learn is that Trump serves as an invitation. Those triggered by Trump (or his enemies) are in possession of a gift: the opportunity and invitation to explore what about Trump is triggering. My personal journey convinces me that we get triggered because of an experience we are not willing to relive, or a fear we are not willing to face, or a sadness we are not willing to feel. Said differently: Trump’s presence in our lives in 2024 is going to cause many Americans to experience some trauma; those who accept the experience as an invitation to heal and grow will find they are able to find peace with Trump or his enemies. And then they will possess a superpower.
When we move beyond our rational mind and embrace our emotions and spirit, we allow ourselves to feel the things we’ve avoided. When we cut ourselves off from our emotions we limit our potential to what our puny brains can process. When we open ourselves up to the universe of awareness and consciousness around us, we find that we are able to access seemingly limitless potential. In my experience, the way to that knowledge is through the body, through internal exploration. But before we can access the infinite, we must first let go of our baggage: the fear and sadness our bodies have carried for so long thanks to our neglect and avoidance. Surrendering in this manner is not particularly easy nor fun, and from what I’ve read typically people only make the jump when they are jarred (perhaps via the overwhelming grief of losing a loved one, just to offer one example). Perhaps said differently: people typically only learn surrender when they are sufficiently traumatized. And so now we will learn whether Trump’s reelection campaign will bring us into enough awareness of our trauma to make the jump.
I am not optimistic, at least within this election cycle. My suspicion is that we are not done learning the lessons Trump can teach us; as such I anticipate a fraught election cycle and a legitimacy crisis whether he wins or loses. What I find particularly interesting is that the lessons we need to learn are available to us now, if only we were willing and knew how to look. Different people will choose surrender and jump to a new state of awareness at different times. What I am curious to watch is how much damage we create before we collectively (or at least a critical mass of us) make the jump. Lots of what we cling to must die in order to make space for what wants to be birthed. Destruction born out of love will clear out rot. Destruction born out of fear, however, will take the good with the bad. We have lots of room to descend into madness, chaos, war, anarchy, oppression, or other forms of negativity and violence. Collectively we’re headed firmly down the path of fear. We get to decide, individually and collectively, whether we continue down the path of fear (which will lead to unimaginable destruction and what we typically label as ‘evil’) or whether we surrender into wholeness and love. Somehow I sense that I have a role to play in helping us make the jump. The specifics of my role are only beginning to reveal themselves to me, but they are beginning.
And so I continue to do my work, with perhaps increased urgency as we enter 2024, in the expectation that my work will expand beyond it’s current inward focus (healing just me) and moving out into the world (helping others discover the need and capacity to heal themselves). I hope that we are able to heal before too much unnecessary destruction occurs, but part of surrender is learning to identify and let go of attachment. I am grieving, and will continue to grieve, the loss of dying norms and entities that have brought me joy and a sense of security. But I need to let go of my attachment to them in order to see clearly, act knowingly, and make space for what wants to be birthed.
There exists some possibility that we collectively avoid chaos, and that this letter will serve just to document how much uncertainty we faced entering 2024. More likely, you will grow up in and inherit a world far more chaotic than I ever knew; in that case I hope this letter helps you understand how to navigate the chaos for yourselves.
I love you,
Dad
Letters to Leland 