It’s surprising that President Trump has had and continues to have an essential role in shaping my life and the lives of so many people. I never expected that he would play such a role in my life.  In 2016, he inspired me to start the Army of Good, which has grown positively and effectively ever since.

He sparked a significant turn toward a Spiritual path in me, one that grows and grows, as I did not care to join the red-and-blue shifts toward anger, hatred, revenge, and even rage on both sides of the American spectrum.

President Trump has shaped my life dramatically, and he promises to reshape the country in his mold. Sometimes, he fascinates me; sometimes, he frightens me; sometimes, he amazes me. There are few times when he doesn’t pop up into my mind. That’s a lot of power. No one but Maria has that kind of hold over me.  It’s not healthy.

Roughly half of America applauds, even reveres, what he is doing and, in many cases, even worships him. They consider him their Messiah, who has come to save them.

He is almost certainly the most fascinating and consequential President in my lifetime. Since we will be living together for the foreseeable future, I want to figure out how to live in peace and help people others have left behind and who have nowhere else to go.

Trump has helped shape the fantastic support for a food pantry in my town’s Army of Good. People want to feel good and do good.

I also mean to show him the respect a President of my country deserves, no matter how much hatred he pushes my way.

A spiritual life is not about hiding, turning away, or surrendering. It’s quite the opposite. I’ve never been stronger or clearer about what I wish my life to be, in every way, personal and otherwise.

Since I’ve worked on this spirituality, I am happier, more honest, productive than ever, and more in love than ever imagined. That’s a good scorecard; I don’t plan to let any politician take it away.

And I won’t turn on or hate my many friends who support him and wish him well. If I’ve learned nothing else, anger and hate accomplish nothing.

 

 

Trump will continue to shape my life without knowing me, that much is clear. I’m working hard to understand his rise and popularity. I’ll get there.

My spiritual path, partly prompted partly by him, is helping me accept him and learn from it the experience without anger, hatred, or a lust for revenge.

I don’t know how else to put it, but the people who hate and spout cruelty are my teachers; they teach me how not to be. I have been in their shoes, and I’m not going back. I am certainly no better than they are.

As fascinating and essential as Trump is, his behavior over the past few weeks has reaffirmed my long-held belief that beneath his genius for politics and communication, there is a fatal flaw that I do not want to mimic or come to hate.

Trump’s deep flaw, so far,  is his hatred for people who disagree with him, challenge him, or seek to hold him responsible for his flaws and even dishonest and illegal behavior.

While it’s clear that half of the country admires and supports him, it sometimes gets lost in the media hysteria that half of the government doesn’t.

Like me, they are waiting and watching.  Unlike many of them, I do not hate him.

I’m a history buff, and through my obsessive reading, I have learned that leaders, kings, dictators, or elected officials who govern by frightening or hating large numbers of their citizens do not end well.

You can’t run a country this size if you hate half of the people you govern and if half of the people hate you. People do not like being frightened, insulted, or diminished – note the “woke” campaign and the war on trans children or women’s rights. It builds one set of followers while arousing the others.

A good example came this week when the Trump administration set out more so-called “enemies” by cutting all federal aid to just about everyone while Trump’s social police hunt out the “woke.”

An African-American friend told me “I feel like he wants to erase me and people like me from the planet.” It does feel that way at times.

Canceling all that aid was foolish and a striking example of what could come. People will quickly tire of it.

Many populations have been dominated for years by dictators in countries with histories of domination and persecution. That is not the history of America, which is filled with diverse people who are used to fighting for what they want.

Trump is working to disenfranchise the other and push them back into silence and obscurity. The uproar over the clumsy and almost sinsanr cutting of federal aid is a timely example. The roar and outrage caused a hurried surrender he Mr. Trump usually inflicts on weaker people and countries.

This is something new for me. I’ve never been there before.

Where do I fit into this? Americans have a rich and entrenched history of freedom and is increasingly diverse, whether he hates the idea or not. Domination is not in our history.

That’s the difference between us and Russia.

This independent spirit will emerge again, given the right provocations.

What am I doing?

First, I have worked hard to tone down or abolish my dislike, anger, or contempt for people who are different from me or who disagree with me.

My spiritual work is helping me to disagree in different ways. I am learning who I am and who I want to be, and I am not an angry person who hates other people. My anger has been chopped and meditated out of me.

I’m learning to listen.

I don’t call people names, demean or diminish them, or hold grudges and grievances. I mind my own business.  I don’t tell other people what to do or how to live.

Those are not healthy things to permit and ignore; they will harm me as much or more than the anger directed at me.

I am eager to learn from Mr. Trump and his followers—I’m listening and learning—but our President is his own worst enemy. He does not care for people like me or anything like me, and his contempt and anger are frightening and destructive to the country and his vision of what it should be.

I can’t persuade him to do anything, and he won’t try. I am working to understand who I am and wish to be. I am learning to speak up for myself, to speak my piece without rancor, judgment, or the hostile posturing that poisons our social media.

I’m determined to be better than that, to continue my search for helping those in need, and to get comfortable with the person I am now. I owe my spiritual work for that.

 

 

It feels good, so much better than feeling angry or being judged by others. I will think what I think and welcome what others believe, providing it is presented without contempt, anger, or cruelty. That has already happened to some degree, and I’m just starting.

I’ve learned from the lessons of Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela,  John Lewis, and Mahatma Gandhi. Don’t hate your enemies; they will hurt you right back and harm countless innocent people along the way.

Spirituality is its own religion, and the hostile attacks of politics are arousing all kinds of people, as it has aroused me. I want a kindler and gentler America.

Every time I help raise some food for the Cambridge Food Pantry, I feel good, strong, and grounded.

My work ahead is to stay on this course. I won’t hate people who differ from me, I’ll do good in every reasonable way I can,  and I will stay away from the poison shrouding our capital.   Rage is not my choice; I’m not in this world to hate Donald Trump or his followers; I’m here to work on being a good human who helps people when he can.

But I we’ll fight for what I believe in in my own way. That’s my job, my focus, my fate. That, and to build a happy life with love and empathy.

I have choices to make, and my choice is the spiritual path: Honesty, kindness, peacefulness, and passion.

I have my work to do, from helping people to taking beautiful flowers that help people feel better and become good husbands, fathers, and friends. I’m too busy to hate and grieve.

It’s a clear path for me to keep my soul on the ground as I learn to live peacefully with the New America, no matter what they may think of me.