79

Failure
is an opportunity.
If you blame someone else,
there is no end to the blame.

Therefore the Master
fulfills her own obligations
and corrects her own mistakes.

She does
what she needs to do
and demands nothing of others.

Tao Te Ching by Lao-tsu, trans. by Stephen Mitchell

These lines, verse 79 are gem-like in relevance to my life, my sense of self, the game that I must play of exchange, with family circle and circles of friends. The lines are also painfully germane to the yawning chasm, the two worlds within which Americans abide, the blue states and the red states. It seems not very long ago, in my prime years when I was working, that the terms, red and blue, freighted with antipathy could not have been imagined as the fate of our country.

The gate has been left open, and the horse has escaped.

And blame? Without a doubt there is much which can be reasonably assigned to everyone. Collectively, each of us and all of us, took our eye off of that relationship-net imbued with sufficient good will that we worked together, no matter where we happened to call home. No more.

What can I do now? Cease all blame. Stop it. No more blame for myself. Perhaps that’s the most difficult. Then forswear blaming the President, the Speaker of the House, or Ted Cruz, or Americans living in Texas or Florida. The paradox: we create circumstances which entrap us.

Attend to my circle of responsibility and influence.

Full stop.