“The most wasted of all days is one without laughter.” – Nicholas Chamfort

Spirituality is the process by which a person seeks meaning and fulfillment.

We live by our own bliss, we are called to a life of purpose and fulfillment. When we fail to answer the call, we descend into hollowness, anger and conflict. Every day we see the consequences of a kind of hollowness, our new national purpose – making money and boosting corporate profits and protecting the lives and fortunes of the wealthy – is an empty vessel which many are filling with rage, contempt and divisiveness.

Spiritual people do not advocate hatred and cruelty, they are the very antithesis of that.  Jesus, Gandhi, Dr. King, Muhammad, the Dalai Lama and Nelson Mandela have all told us, again and again to be merciful and just.

See the awful cost when they are ignored. Yesterday, I wrote about a powerful new book called Tribe, and the search for community, a timely book for sure.

We live a spiritual life by seeking to be better, to be good, to be fulfilled. I am not a Bible follower, but I am drawn to the idea that when we fail in our spiritual life, we open the door to the Devil and his legions. If you read the news, the door is wide open, the Devil and his Army are marching through.

The idea was that national elections would be a celebration of democracy, a vigorous, loud and spirited debate and discussion about the future of our country, after which we will all rally around a new leader and get on with living our free lives, which we always believed were superior to any lives in the world.

This year, many are deeply disturbed by the hatred and fear, ignorance and bigotry that seem to be pulling us apart every day. It is easy enough to blame Donald Trump for this, he is in fact a sorry wreck of a human being, I feel badly about him, more and more each day.

But to me, it is more complex than that, he is a symptom, not the disease. He grows where we fail, he shines when spirituality dims, when leaders cower and hide. As religion has declined, our national faith has become the blind pursuit of money and an epidemic of almost unfathomable unfairness and greed. In that vacuum, Trump or something like him will always grow.  How could it now, and why are we surprised?

We have lost our spiritual lamps, ignored our guides, left countless millions behind.

I think hatred rises when spirituality fails, our better angels seem to be in hiding, driven to the edges of life, ignored and pushed aside in favor  the broken, the angry and the left behind. And the rich and powerful.

For me, this is a gift. It reminds me to pursue my spiritual life more vigorously, my reading, my meditation, my connection with nature, my love for people, my life with animals, my writing, my photography, my own sense of justice and compassion, my own teaching and sharing what I have learned while I can.

A spiritual life has never had  more meaning for me than it does now, I believe a spiritual revolution is coming. I prefer not to whine about the sorry state of affairs, but to make sure my own affairs are in order.

Every burst of hatred sparks me to work harder, dig deeper, do more good, take brighter photographs, lift people up with words. That is perhaps the most powerful political statement anyone can make, and I don’t need to argue it with anyone, it takes place inside of me.

“What we are asked to do is love,” wrote Thomas Merton, the Trappist monk and author, “and this love itself will render ourselves and our neighbors worthy if anything can.”

Last week, Maria was invited to go to India in February and teach rescued and struggling former sex workers and slaves how to make her wonderful, simple and beautiful potholders.  Of course I want to go, she said. And she will go.

This is what it is about, really, not yelling at each other, sending nasty e-mails to people, hating those who feel differently. Answering the call to touch the life of another human being.

We will have to work hard to raise a  lot of money for her to go, but the idea of her teaching these brave women and their children how to make her now iconic potholders so they can make a living and build a new life speaks to me of what spirituality and a spiritual life is all about.

By now, it is clear that we shall live in community or perish alone and in our own angry little mobs.  It would be so much easier if the people who purport to lead us would show us the way. I will do it without them.

Maria is following her bliss, she is answering the call, she is stepping out of her life to cross the world and do good and remind us what it means to be a human being. Plato wrote that every human being wants community more than anything else. Hers is an intensely political act, it is the point of the spiritual life – fulfilling herself, helping others.

One at a time, we do what we can do. We do the best that we can for as long as we can.

We don’t have to follow our leaders when they teach us to hate and fear.

The rich and the powerful may be tearing our sense of community apart to advance their own power and ambition, but we don’t have to follow that call.

We can reject it and turn back towards a spiritual life, from which has come the best of being human – a search for peace, justice, reconciliation and forgiveness, and the ability to empathize and build the community and sense of common purpose we all seek and need.

Argument is the fool’s idea of wisdom,  answers can only come from listening, learning and understanding.

Spirituality teaches us to live in harmony, to take what we need, to care for the poor, to advance  equality, to preach compassion and empathy.  We love to quote Jesus and exploit his name, very few people are faithful to his message. For now, spirituality has been banished from our political process, but they can’t take it away from us.

Time for another revolution, a spiritual one. We need to get our lives back.

A spiritual life and a search for spirituality may be the most important vote anyone of us can take.