{"id":4724,"date":"2016-11-08T09:28:31","date_gmt":"2016-11-08T17:28:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/?p=4724"},"modified":"2016-11-08T09:48:17","modified_gmt":"2016-11-08T17:48:17","slug":"november-8-2016-world-needs-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/dev\/life-stories\/november-8-2016-world-needs-now\/","title":{"rendered":"November 8, 2016 – What the world needs now"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\""One

“One of the paintings I’m working on – almost done with the background.”<\/p><\/div>\n

Listen to this post:
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You\u2019d have to have been on a sojourn to some other part of the Universe, to not feel the tension, and have experienced the negativity of this election season in the United States. It has to be the thing most people can agree upon \u2013 that we cannot wait<\/em> for this to be over<\/em>. It will be \u2013 today. But we have the opportunity to choose not just who will be our next president, and those who will hold other offices, we also can choose how we will go forward – whether we live in fear and dread, or will have faith in the future and in the goodness of people, who are our fellow citizens. Regardless of how many of us wish, that everyone who doesn\u2019t think like we do would ex-patriate \u2013 we<\/em> are the United States of America \u2013 an amazingly diverse country that has – for 240 years – held us together as Americans. We are not the same country, unless it includes all<\/em> of us.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s said, that we live in post-modern times. I\u2019m not a social scientist and am not well versed, on exactly what is<\/em> post-modernism. But a cursory look into the definition, added to the experience of living in our culture, and what I see is that, as I heard our president say last night, we live in cynical<\/em> times. Being cynical is wrapped up as smart, informed, prudent, realistic<\/em>. You see it on both sides, especially at the extremes. But no one is immune. And I can see why – cynicism is useful; it is a really good protector. It keeps us from having to realize, that we actually do<\/em> care \u2013 and even more, how much<\/em> we care. Because caring exposes us, it\u2019s risky as hell. Cynicism shows up in comments on posts and in tweets and cable TV news shows. It is dismissive, objectifying, emasculating, de-humanizing, polarizing, disconnecting. It is a really effective tool of the shadow.<\/p>\n

A post about the need to resurrect reverence<\/em>, has been brewing in me for a while now and this seems like the right time for it. I looked up this word too. Its definition is pretty straightforward: reverence simply means deep respect<\/em>. It doesn\u2019t necessarily mean being religious, as in worshiping or idolizing \u2013 nor does it in any way, require that we set aside what matters to us. It means finding within us, a genuine positive regard for someone or something else. I think we do<\/em> have the choice \u2013 to be cynical or to have reverence \u2013 about a person, a group of people, the political process or our country \u2013 we can even have reverence for a situation. I also know that regardless of our capacity to do this, being human means, that there are always times when our instincts take us over and we protect ourselves. We can come back, though. In fact \u201cseeing again\u201d, is the root of the word respect<\/em> \u2013 literally, to take another look.<\/p>\n