Enough:)...

I've been thinking a lot, today, about the election...

...about how far America seems to be from my ideals for her:)...

...and about how this election seems to both confirm how far we've come and how far we have to go, by my lights:)...

I've still got applications to fill out...but I've also been visiting some old websites that I haven't visited in a while...conservative...liberal...academic...

I realize, as I visit these websites, that my vision of how I would like to see humanity go (and which I have a feeling, in general, it will go, given that this vision is based on what I see and think humanities deepest impulses lead it), is quite different than a lot of more partisan and antagonistic visions of America...or of humanity...or whatever:):):)...

I'm not trying to figure out who I fit in with by who I exclude...

I'm imagining how we all belong...and how we might make that real and not just rhetoric...

I'm not looking for common ground with anyone based on what we can manufacture as common ground between us...

I'm looking for genuine common ground...what deepest needs and loves and passions bring us together:)...

I have to say that I've been pretty discouraged in the last few years that so many people -- liberal and conservative, radical, anarchist, and libertarian, Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist and otherwise, American, French, British, German, South African, Japanese, Iraqi, Iranian, North Korean, Cuban, Chinese, and otherwise -- have focussed their bitterness and resentments and hatred as means of bringing people together that they clearly don't trust in a more authentic way -- to express their deepest values...

It has been a dark time for freedom...and democracy...and decency...and humanity...and love...and openess...and liberality, in its best sense...

And the election seemed to confirm peoples' attachments to so many of their prejudices...and darker fears...for themselves and for others...

But it also gave me some time to see that, for now...the love and decency and openness and humanity...and love...and freedom...and authentic liberality that we have to offer...

That it's enough...for now...and we'll build on it...to make things better:):):)...

Have a good day, everyone:):):):)...

Love,
Ben