Recently at the Unity Church in Boulder we talked about what a difficult moment this is in American history. But there have been other difficult times, to be sure. The question is not just what’s happening, but who we’re choosing to be in the space of what’s happening.

We are called upon to navigate extremely turbulent historical waters, and our politics isn’t an adequate container for the thinking or the conversation needed to do that.

Our politics is like allopathic medicine, focused only on external remedies and not taking into account the psychological and emotional and spiritual dynamics involved in either causing our societal disease or that are necessary to heal it. We will get to the remedy; I saw in my campaign that the people are ready to create it. It’s the political/media/campaign establishment that’s not.

It’s sad for all of us to see the terrible state we’re in as a country now, but I think what we need to do is to feel that sadness. Recognizing the depth of the problem will counterintuitively guide us to the place within ourselves from which will come the answers and solutions we need now.

This quote from Aeschylus is one of my favorites; I’ve always thought of it in personal terms, but it’s true collectively as well: “Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.”

Dear God, please give us wisdom now.

This year will not be easy. Thomas Paine’s comment about “times that try men’s souls” comes to mind.

I’m asking myself how I can avoid an emotional descent that parallels the downward spiral of our political conflicts. My experience as a presidential candidate made me exquisitely aware of both how corrupt things are, and how beautiful they could be.

When the system gets in the way, the possibilities of democracy are worth the struggle, and the opposition to democracy demands that we stand up to it. Somehow this is about more than making sure we meditate. It’s about more than making sure we pray. It’s about more than making sure we put into practice our spiritual principles.

I know for myself it’s about some commitment to becoming more than I currently am. I can’t quite put my finger on what that means, but I know I’m called to evolve in what feels to be a different way.

We’re all going to have to, if we’re to become the people we need to be to navigate the turbulent waters of this age and steer our world into safer waters.

Let’s support each other in doing that.

This is not a time for weakness, but for strength.

It’s going to take a lot of forgiveness, positivity and compassion for those who do not agree with us, to make the kind of changes when all this is over that most need to be made. The drama on the other side of this is going to be huge. Much has been revealed about how American operates, and it isn’t pretty.

We were completely unprepared for a virus that is essentially an attack on our people. Nor did our government function in a way that allowed us to prepare quickly. People are seeing how the current way of doing things in America protects the few at the expense of the many.

This is not a reason for violent revolution. That very thought should bring a shudder to anyone.

But we do need a moral revolution. In the words of John F Kennedy, “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable.”

We need a revolution in values. We need a blazing cry for justice.

We need an embrace of love so great that it extends beyond the personal and heals the entire world.

Martin Luther King Jr. said those in the civil rights movement were materially positive but spiritually active.

Most of us are materially passive now but we should be spiritually active.

There’s a lot of thinking we need to do, about why this happened and what needs to change so it never happens again. Don’t just be a spectator; be a conscious citizen. There are different theories about how this started, but all of them reflect humanity’s disharmony and violence towards nature, animals and each other.

In the US, an economic rather than a humanitarian bottom line is what led to a weakened CDC and to Trump withholding early testing. 37 out of 47 pandemic centers had been closed. Pandemic advice and preparedness plans had been ignored.

But don’t let a realization of all the human irresponsibility that led to this put you into anger, despair or distractedness. Let it put you into sadness at the tragedy of it all. This is a good time to simply feel the grief; the grief will transform into motivation we’ll need later. On the other side of this, big changes will be in order. The United States was left completely vulnerable in ways that should never have occurred, and which should never occur again.