Category: Words To Live By

By the time this article gets published on my blog, it will be four days past election day. As I write this, it’s exactly two days prior to that day, a day I’ve come to see holds paramount to all other interests for many in this country.

Quite honestly, this whole election has brought a stress upon my life that has made me feel so very distant from the vast majority, especially those closest to me. Case in point, a friend of mine recently got very angry with me when I said I hadn’t cast my ballot yet and didn’t even know if I wanted to. In the heat of that moment, they expressed some choice words and said they might have to re-evaluate being my friend if I didn’t do my civic duty. It was an extremely disheartening conversation and one that truly saddened me.

The idea of losing any friend based upon a stance I may or may not take on voting seems insane. But I often feel lately we’re living in insane times and acting in insane ways towards each other. It’s precisely why I feel like there will be no real winner in this election because at the core of all this insanity are people believing the problem is out there in our political leadership, when it’s in us, in the way we treat each other, like considering not being a friend if a person doesn’t vote.

Whether I voted or didn’t shouldn’t matter. What should matter is the amount of anger that seems to be building in so many for even the slightest of things like with my friend’s stance on voting. What good does getting angry do? Anger only begets anger and an angry individual will only remain angry long after this election is over, even if their candidate was elected, as it merely will be transferred onto something else to be angry at. And let’s not forget that all it takes to begin a war is for two individuals to be on opposing sides of some view and become seriously angry about it.

While I may be angry at some things in my life, chiefly my health, one thing I can say for sure that I haven’t been angry at or complained about during the majority of the past four years is the state of our country. That’s not because I’ve been in favor of this political administration, because, on the contrary, I haven’t, but nor have I really never been in favor of any political administration since I became an adult either. Honestly, I’ve just chosen to always focus my energy on other things that I feel more called to place my energy in, like treating those around me with unconditional love and respect, no matter what they stand for. In my humble opinion, that takes a lot more work than angrily lashing out at the current political administration.

My core goal in life has become one of inclusion, not exclusion, even when it may bruise my ego in doing so. That’s why for me, whether someone votes or doesn’t, won’t change my opinion of them. This is no different from the neutral stances I take with political affiliation, religion, sexuality, race, and countless other things that cause so many others to hate one another versus love one another these days. That hatred is the very thing that’s causing our country to be at the very tipping point it’s at right now and notably why people are worrying about things like civil war and mass violence.

So, what happens in the next four years, I don’t know. But truly, I want you all to know that I plan on doing my part to love each of you through it all, NO MATTER WHAT! Whether you voted or didn’t, whether you’re in favor of who gets elected or doesn’t, or whether you think of me as some 60’s hippie love child or someone you think buries his head in the sand, I chose to love and accept you, just as you are. I only hope you’ll do the same with me, because if we ever want to see peace achieved in our country, and the world for that matter, it will only come by accepting each other for our differences, rather than trying to create a society that’s only filled with what our mind thinks it should be filled with.

Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson

I read an interesting tidbit recently about the London Times once posting a question to readers back at the turn of the twentieth century that asked, “What’s wrong with the world?” They received many responses with plenty of varying opinions as to what each thought was wrong and could be done to fix the state of where the world was heading at the time. I’m sure countless people would have just as much to say even now if this question got posed to the masses in a national publication. But, back then, there was one response in particular that stood out from the rest. It was from G.K. Chesterton, an English writer, poet, and philosopher. His answer was a mere four words that said, “Dear Sirs, I am.”, which I too feel I’d answer in the very same way.

Presently, especially in the United States, it’s quite obvious that there is notable division amongst a good majority of people and everyone seems to have an opinion on what needs to change to make our country better. There’s one school that says so long as we get Trump out of office and Biden gets elected everything will improve, while the other school of thought says so long as Trump stays in office and Biden loses the election, everything will be ok. This belief is no different as one makes their way down the political pipeline from the Supreme Court to the Senate and House, and into the governing bodies from within each state. Countless factions of people at every level believing the answer to that question on what’s wrong with our world is solely tied to someone getting into a political seat or being removed, or some policy getting enacted or being repealed, and so on and so forth. But, if you look back through history, this has never been the case and always been the illusion. I have tried so many times to convey this in my writing and when I talk with others, knowing that the only answer to that question is exactly how G.K. Chesterton answered it.

For the sake of argument, let’s say hypothetically Trump gets reelected. I have many friends who are going to be severely angry and maybe even shun those who supported his reelection. The same holds true if Biden gets elected. I know of a number of people who are going to be pissed and upset at those who supported his election. Sadly, there will be tension no matter who is in office for the next four years, so what’s the answer? The answer I’ve learned is to love a person no matter who they vote for. So long as I judge a person for their choices, I become the problem in the world and not the solution as to what’s wrong with it. The more I judge the world by saying it will only get better if “this” or “that’ happens, the more I avoid the real work of simply loving my neighbor as I would love myself.

While some have chosen to unfriend me because of my repeated stance of not officially taking a political side and not joining in some merry or rather unmerry bandwagon of protestation against one candidate versus another, I still choose to stand by my laurels and believe it really doesn’t matter who the next president will be, because so long as we continue to act like asses towards one another to put it bluntly, and the more we continue to judge each other and condemn each other, putting each other down for some belief or value, nothing will EVER get better in our world.

All it takes to add to what’s wrong with our world is two people to begin fighting over who should be the next president. All it takes to add to what’s wrong with our world is one person to begin judging another for their religious or spiritual stances. And all it takes to add to what’s wrong with our world is to start believing that I am right and you are wrong no matter what it’s in reference to. But to make this world a better place and to create unity amongst us all is to begin accepting and loving each other no matter what.

For as much as I may pump this unconditional love and acceptance message in much of my writing, I do more so to continue to deflate my ego which tries to convince me from time to time that the world would indeed become better if only “this” would happen. Ultimately, at the very core though, the problem with our world begins with me not blaming the world for the problem and thinking the world needs to change somehow to fix the problem, when the fix is, and has always been, within me…

Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson

The other day I read a funny blurb on Facebook making its rounds on social media that said, “I’m beginning to think ‘Hindsight is 2020’ was some kind of message from a future time traveler that we all misunderstood.” I laughed pretty hard at first but then thought about how much our world really has been turned upside down this year.

At first, the year began pretty awesome for me. I felt so much better in my mind, body, and soul, and was thinking 2020 was going to be pretty spectacular. Sadly, little did I know that whatever the antonym for the word spectacular is would become how I’d describe this calendar year a short while later.

It truly has been an exceptionally difficult year. Beyond the fact that all this social distancing has led to greater feelings of isolation and loneliness, I’ve been totally dismayed at all the divisions being drawn. Rather than allowing a pandemic to bring us all closer, I’ve seen such division amongst the masses that I’ve been concerned a civil war could be in our near future.

Racism, police brutality, climatic craziness, destructive wildfires, Republicans versus Democrats, Trump supporters versus Biden supporters, stock market volatility, massive unemployment, such great losses of life from this COVID-19 pandemic, mask rage-outs, multiple city-wide violent protests, deaths of people who’ve made a positive difference like Kobe Bryant and Ruth Bader Ginsberg, a presidential impeachment, long-running business closures, world-wide hypochondria, name-calling and squabbling in presidential debates, it sure has been a year thus far hasn’t it?

It’s hard to believe that most of this has come in just over seven months of time.

The frequent conversation I hear around me now is whether 2021 will get any better. What will our world look like beyond all this? Will we remain primarily a mask-based, socially distant society with people staying more away from each other than not, avoiding touch, handshakes, and hugs? Will things that we once enjoyed going to like blockbuster movies, headliner concerts, and major sporting events in droves ever return? And for those like me, trying to still live a sober life in recovery, will we ever get back to regularly meeting in person?

To be honest, questions like these have been as difficult to deal with, as it has been with all the unknowingness related to my health over the past decade. I’ve had to live every single day with a total question mark about what tomorrow will bring with my health, where any sort of control I’ve tried to exert to make my life feel better and more rational has been met with an equal and opposite force of irrationality.

And that indeed is what 2020 has felt like for me, a year of irrationality where life has become completely paradoxical from what I first thought this year might bring.

I honestly can’t imagine what Jesus would be saying right now if he had to live through 2020. Maybe He wouldn’t be saying anything and instead, just be shaking his head in sorrow over all our disunity? Ultimately, I’m severely disappointed at how divided our nation and really all our peoples have become, when I would have thought a terrible pandemic might have united all of us on a greater path towards unconditional love.

Nevertheless, as our upcoming election rapidly approaches, I just want to say that no matter who becomes our president for the next four years, that for life to stabilize, it’s going to take a lot more acceptance and love and a lot less finger-pointing and judgment. And while I know plenty continue to say that I live in such an idealistic view of how to course correct all this, I choose to live out my life with hope and faith that there is something far Greater than all of this, that can not only heal all my health issues, but unite us all, and that is how I keep going, in a crazy world where “Hindsight Is 2020” has completely taken on a totally different meaning, even when it’s said in jest.

Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson