I Appreciate You, America

Issue 117

positivepsychology.com

If this is your first read, welcome to The Conscious Politics Op-Ed (formerly The Conscious Politics Sunday Newsletter), currently being published whenever possible.

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I deeply appreciate and am tremendously grateful for our system of government, “system of” being the operative words here. To be sure, I hope to feel the same way about our actual government one of these days because we have everything we need for that to occur. I say this as an everyday American citizen — one who is, most definitely, not a scholar or a historian or a professor or a politician or a bureaucrat or anything of the sort. And I address you, conscious politics practitioner, as a fellow practitioner, looking at America today through the lenses of gratitude and intention, (at least).

Can we stipulate first that if we’re human on planet Earth right now we will, with very few exceptions, all live under the auspices of one government or another? In that regard, I could not personally be more grateful and appreciative than I am right now to be a citizen of the United States of America because of what we are in our guts, our DNA: a society that governs itself. We govern ourselves! We say, on paper anyway, that everyone here is welcome so long as they follow the rules. We call it the rule of law and we make the laws ourselves! We say, on paper anyway, that no person is above the law. And in spite of what one presidential candidate and his party yammers on about incessantly, local control over elections — since our founding — has insured that ours are free and fair. Further, we have them at regular, prescribed intervals wherein, on paper anyway, we return representatives we like to power and we vote out the ones we don’t like.

The idea, late in the 18th century, that a society would not be lorded over by a monarch or an autocrat or a warrior or a dictator or a theologian or an oligarch or anyone else who might inherit or wrest power and then impose its will on a citizenry — with the ability to bestow and take away rights — was extremely radical. Indeed, our founders flipped the paradigm by establishing a government that, itself, didn’t and wouldn’t and couldn’t grant rights to its citizens before the citizens themselves — endowed with unalienable rights by an infinitely greater, higher authority — consented to be governed by representatives of their own choosing. Then and only then were people empowered to govern. To quell any urges among its fledgling citizenry and politicians to create a too-powerful government, they created three co-equal branches as a system of checks and balances. Again, on paper, wow. The entire concept of America is astonishing and wondrous, if you ask me, and, as of this writing, all of this still exists.

I’m in the camp that says our system of government is like the “bones” of a dilapidated, neglected mansion on a hill.

Arguably, however, we have made a real mess of things. We know what it’s like to “do democracy” when we build it atop a genocide of Native Americans. We know what it’s like to “do democracy” in abject violation, from Day One, of our stated belief that we are all created as equal to one another. We know what it’s like to “do democracy” with an extremely small, homogeneous collection of people (White, male, landowners including owners of slaves). We know what it’s like to right some wrongs (see: U.S. Reconstruction Era + Civil & Voting Rights Acts of 1964 & 1965) and what it’s like when forces resist the righting (see: Jim Crow; recent gutting of the Voting Rights Act). We know what it’s like to prioritize corporate profits over people and planet. We know what it’s like to live at the effect of so much racism — itself a belief that we are not all created as equal. We know what it’s like to gerrymander our districts into heavily lopsided representation. We don’t (yet) know what it’s like to live in America when America is living up to its own ideals.

I’m in the camp, however (is there a camp?), that says our system of government is like the “bones” of a dilapidated, neglected mansion on a hill. For all the stated reasons and many more, the place is a mess. It’s barely recognizable as what it once was but a robust team of engineers, architects, general contractors, and their minions collectively declare that the the bones are good, the foundation is solid. Electrical and plumbing systems can be readily modernized, same for heating and air conditioning while repairs to walls and floors and ceilings will require nothing more than standard refurbishing attention. The windows can be replaced then it’ll be all about going to town redecorating and landscaping and doing all the other fun cosmetic stuff. In other words, a well-planned, professionally-executed remodel would return the mansion to and even transcend its original glory.

What I’m getting at here is applying some standard conscious practice when we find ourselves in messes. One approach is to employ our attitude of gratitude and it’s kissing cousin, appreciation. Look — and maybe even dig deep — for whatever it is we do, in the present moment, actually have to be grateful for because our willingness to invest precious time and energy in appreciation does some very important things:

• It lightens our loads, relaxes us, brings us into the present moment, and lifts our moods.

• It puts us in dialogue with our Creator, the ultimate (if not sole) source of everything we’re grateful for, which also raises our overall frequency/vibration.

• It paves the way to receive that which we are still wanting.

Wanting? There’s the intention I thought we’d arrive at.

Setting intentions is the second step of this particular conscious practice dance. If the intention is, for example, a highly functional, equitable, democratic version of government that has the overwhelming support of most of its citizens most of the time, all we need to do is believe it’s possible and focus our attention upon that remodel project. As stated, the energies of gratitude and appreciation grease the skids. Of course, we are all connected so a whole bunch of us being grateful for what is and focusing our remaining attention on what’s desired is far more productive than fighting for what we want with people invested in preventing us from having it. Also, like still attracts like, so appreciation and gratitude beget appreciation and gratitude. Unsurprisingly, while I was thinking about being grateful for our system of government, I noticed many other things I appreciate about the United States of America yes, on May 5, 2024, given all the things.

So, is there anything about our country for which you are grateful here, now, today? Go. Practice.

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