Take The Fork in the Road and Get on That "Peace Trail"

A Metaphorical "Fork in the Road"

While everyone is picking up the pieces, we here @ TW are looking forward to this weekend's Celebrations of Neil Young's 71st Birthday on Saturday, November 12 . Definitely something worth celebrating and rejoicing how lucky we are as music fans in this day and age.

As you may or may not have noticed, we put out a few thoughts last week on the 2016 elections. There were a number of key passages, but we'll just mention this one:

Basically, the best we can all hope for at this point, is the utter, complete destruction of the two party monopoly system. The demise of the Republican party is well underway, but this could be the final election for the traditional Democratic party as well. If that is the outcome of the Nov 8 election, than it will be for the good of all of us in the long run. Likewise, with the implosion of the credibility of the monopolistic mainstream media, Trump will have achieved a true trifecta win.

There's a lot of wailing going on right now. But the demise of the Major Parties is needed because they have absolutely zero concern for the interests of the "Ordinary People".

We supported Bernie Sanders during the primaries. And to be crystal clear, we did not any, way, shape or form support Donald Trump or contribute to his victory. If the Democrats had nominated the better candidate at the convention and run Sanders against Trump, we feel Bernie would have beaten The Donald. Hence our statement above, which is a logical follow-on to previous observations in May, 2016. (Just so you're aware of consciousness, full disclosure and total transparency).

But who cares what we think. From a comment by Ian:

I'll say this once: no matter who won or lost the election, there would have been plenty of sore losers on the other side. Kind of happens when voting between two monumentally unpopular candidates. Putting side all my other feelings for the moment, I think we need a time for healing and unity. I know, "as if"... but still, we have to try. Pretty much every four to eight years, we end up with a president that almost half the country wishes weren't there. No matter what side you're on, we've all been there before, to paraphrase David Crosby.

Congratulations if your man won, but those who voted for him will have to recognize that a substantial part of the elecorate does not like the guy you picked. It was true of Obama; it is true of Trump. Jabbing and taunting is not going to help mitigate hard for feelings, nor pave the way for the country to move forward together. While sore losers are unattractive and can waste lots of energy, it's just as off-putting and counterproductive to be a prideful, ungracious winner. That's why both candidates have striking a conciliatory tone in their public comments. Both victory and defeat should be borne with dignity, humility, and grace. Those words have been largely absent from this election cycle, but we need them now. The divisions in our country are especially clear when the candidate who wins in the electoral college has narrowly lost the popular vote, and that's not even giving voice to those who voted third party or "other". No matter who wins, it's almost never by universal consensus; it certainly was not in this case, and it's up to us as a community to acknowledge and take responsibility for this reality. It is incumbent on winners to show compassion and empathy. "Do you think that you believe in yours more than they do theirs somehow, when you see the flags of freedom flyin'?" All I'm really asking is for winners to acknowledge the feelings and concerns of losers as real and valid. It's hard to make progress when you can't even get that far. At the least, giving people a bit of space to come to terms may earn you some goodwill.

One more thing: there are just too many artificial divisions in this world. Whether it's by race, gender or sex, religion, or income--or elitists vs. "just plain folks". All of this grouping of people into "us" and "them" is false and damaging. We've been doing it for a long, long time and that's one of the greatest reasons we've gotten to where we are now. It's important to acknowledge and celebrate our differences, but also to realize what transcends these divisions: our common humanity, our Universal Self, that is much greater than the things that can seem to separate us and is ultimately unbreakable, even if we can't see it. Our brains and senses get confused, leading us to think that there is necessarily anything dividing us from our neighbors, but the further I go in life, the clearer it becomes to me that all of this divisiveness and duality is illusion. It's a powerful illusion, that has given rise to vicious cycles. But it is my hope that we can overcome this suffering and these seemingly fractured, confusing experiences. The first step may be for everyone to close their eyes at least once a day; try to drain from their minds the overwhelming stimuli of our chaotic external world for a time,; and search genuinely and earnestly to see what may lie within each and all of us.

"These experiences are fleeting; they come and they go. Bear them patiently, Arjuna. Those who are not affected by these changes, who are the same in pleasure and pain, are truly wise..." (Bhagavad Gita 2:14-15).

Thanks you Ian! And especially that quote from Bhagavad Gita.

As everyone knows, the Bhagavad Gita ties into Neil Young, of course.

And why the heck is a music blog discussing politics, heaven forbid?!. Or religion?

Maybe because life is complicated? Or have we just taken the less traveled fork in the road on our journeys?

Searching for the Heart? Or the Key?

---

---