We are on the edge of a storm according to a writer in The Atlantic and another in The Federalist. At the end of today’s edition of the NYT The Daily update of articles, I read a paragraph that stated that we are locked in a cold “civil war” as a nation.

The journalist Anand Giridharadas writes in his new newsletter, The.Ink. The U.S. has become “two countries impermeable to each other,” where each side thinks the other presents an existential threat to the idea of America and where persuasion is all but impossible.

The Atlantic and The Federalist writers were cited as writing essentially on the same topic. Bereft of enough time to follow those links and read those pieces I made a hard copy of both to read later today.

Civil War, an unthinkable term, — yet, today the president plans to visit Kenosha, Wisconsin to tour the areas burned in the civil unrest. Obviously he covets a photo opportunity. He will leverage the aftermath of the chaos that his racist rhetoric spurred on, in his bid to influence the electorate in the run-up to November 3rd. He is shameless.

It is clear, transparent that I find Buddhism to be an attractive way of thinking, of disposing of oneself in this violent social and intellectually irrational context. The philosophy of Buddhism offers insight that brings one to the other shore. There is no thought of the afterlife, no religious trappings, — just the insistence that change is the way of things, and we humans are trapped in a sticky wicket of our own cravings, aversions, and desires. We attempt to grasp, to hold on to a changing reality, that slips away despite our best effort. This reminder of our predicament is enough to cause us to suspend uttering that snarky comment, or reconsider pulling the trigger of the gun some are now holding.

That is the teaching of the Buddhist tradition as far as I understand it.

Life is to be lived, no matter the darkness.

---

Won’t Get Fooled Again
by The Who