This morning after my nature meditation, I was thinking about how each individual  lives in a different world, and that there are also different worlds of collective perspective (worlds that groups of individuals “agree to” amongst themselves). When we take a vacation to another place/culture, we can feel so refreshed and awakened by a different collective perspective.

When we allow and encourage different collective perspectives to clash, the result is conflict. Last night I was watching cable tv for a bit, and the invocation to “be there” for the presidential election primary “town halls” came on.  This invocation was presented visually and aurally like the build-up for a boxing match.

Just as the media draws in viewers for sports, it draws them in for political discourse– in a way that mimics competitive sports. This approach, which continues into the “town halls,”  helps to create a sense of perpetual conflict. Instead of listening to and considering another’s perspective, we attack, defend, compete, and obfuscate.

When Hillary Clinton responded to a question about being paid highly for giving speeches to Goldman-Sachs, her response was something like, well, that’s just what they pay. In that world, it’s just the way things are.  It has its own validity no matter what you might think of it.

This election gives us a chance to check out different collective perspectives. To the extent that we can free ourselves from reaction– which is not easy in this climate– we can learn something.

The first step is to understand, as best we can, a world that is different from ours. It is a valid world for those who inhabit it. There is a kind of inner peace in acknowledging that. From there, as voters, we have a role in deciding what we ourselves align with for what we feel is the  “greater good.” We can also take it a step farther, and do service to encourage others to learn about the issues and to vote. (Voting is something that seems simple, but it is fraught with complexity.  Some choose to go even farther and work to dissolve the obstacles that have been created to keep people from voting– my perspective is obvious here!).

The over-arching goal, in my mind, is the most harmonious alignment amongst ourselves “to the seventh generation” and with Mother Nature. It is, however,  not so easy to achieve this in a climate of perpetual conflict.