There is no easy button
We are the one's we're waiting for
Listen to this article on the Motley Mystic Podcast
The day after the election last month, my spouse Beth and I went to dinner. Beforehand, we put out an impromptu invitation to friends on Facebook to join us for a meal and commiseration. Several people showed up, and we each shared our feelings and theories about what had taken place the night before.
One man, commenting on those who voted for Trump, said, "They just wanted it to be easy."
Around the table, everyone nodded sagely.
"Well," I said, "those of us who voted for Harris just wanted it to be easy, too."
There was a gasp across the table as we all realized the truth of that comment.
The truth is this: I don't care who you voted for in this past election – you thought your vote would make life easier for you. We all did. We all thought our vote would give us that proverbial "Easy Button." We press it, and "poof," our candidate is elected and does what they said they'd do, and our lives will get easier.
Here's another truth for you: There is no Easy Button. Getting the outcomes we want from our government is never easy. How to ultimately change what needs to be changed not just in this country, but the world, is also not easy. In fact, the actual work we must do to make any change in the world around us is the most challenging thing any human being can ever do … and we'll get to that in a few minutes. But first, let's look at some other brutal truths.
The hard truths
The truth is this country hasn't really had a functioning democracy for many decades. Poll after poll shows that the vast majority of people want our lawmakers to do some basic things such as enact common sense gun laws, recognize the reproductive rights of women, provide affordable health care, ensure the public education of every child, take care of the climate and keep consumers' interests in mind when passing laws.
How are they doing on those issues? Well, according to a Princeton University study, public opinion has a "near-zero" impact on US law. The thing that does impact what laws get passed in this country? Money, of course.
Indeed, that 2014 study, which analyzed more than 1,800 policy outcomes from 1981 to 2002, found that organized interest groups and the economic elite dominated the political process while the average voter's preferences were largely ignored.
That means corporations, millionaires, billionaires, and lobbyists carry the most weight on Capitol Hill. The rich have ruled the roost in Washington for decades on both sides of the aisle. Democrats may have hidden the influence of the wealthy more elegantly than the Republicans. Right now, though, the oligarchy's ascendence is in full view as the president-elect is naming many of them to cabinet posts and is taking advice from Elon Musk, the world's wealthiest human being.
While those of us here living paycheck-to-paycheck say we want a government that will lower our prices, enrich our livelihoods, and protect our pocketbooks, we're seeing people ascend to power who haven't shopped for eggs or bacon in a long time, if ever. In fact, it's gotten so ridiculous not only in the halls of government but also within the court system (with the majority of the US Supreme Court showing who they're rooting for); I told Beth just the other day that I realized that no one is coming to save us.
No matter which side you voted for, if you make less than half-a-million dollars a year, neither the government nor the courts will be looking out for your best interests in the coming years. Both sides, as they have been doing for decades, will be lining their pockets and bowing to the corporations and special interests that have bought them. We little people may get a bone tossed here or there, or they mess up and we benefit, but no one is specifically looking out for the middle, lower, or working classes. We may have some progressives who squawk about our interests now and then, but they are consistently outvoted.
The opportunity before us
So, where does that leave those of us who have no voice and no real power to sway our federal government? It leaves us with no easy button and an opportunity. The opportunity here is the one I am committed to taking moving forward – and it is the most difficult work that any human being can undertake, which I mentioned earlier. That is the challenging work of going within.
You see, as a long-time student of A Course in Miracles, I have read the book a couple of times and I've even read the Workbook, which are daily lessons to help you put the principles of the book into practice.
You heard that, right? I "read" the Workbook. But, by its nature, the Workbook is just that … a workbook. I didn't say I had "done" the Workbook. If I had done the Workbook since 2016, when I began studying A Course, I think I would not be so disillusioned at this moment because I would have realized a long time ago that nothing in the world outside of myself could ever be the source of my salvation. No government, no court, no religious or activist organization – even the most well-meaning of all of those systems can save me or any of us.
There is no easy button. And this is what I am realizing at this moment in history. Universe had to make what's happening in government so ridiculous, so obviously corrupt and cartoonish that there could be no other conclusion for me but to turn away from it altogether as offering any safety or solace.
What I had avoided by not doing the Workbook was the complex and difficult work that lies ahead for any of us who realize that nothing in the outside world can be our source of safety, happiness, joy, or peace. It's not supposed to be, no matter how much our ego-selves want it to be. Instead, everything we need is within us – safety, happiness, joy, peace. If we can recognize that, then we can begin the arduous journey within – putting aside the ego and its insistence that politics, religion, or activism will ultimately save us and the world.
This is not to say, of course, that we forsake the world around us. We have to live here, after all. We must be involved in causes that we believe in. We must be active in the communities that we are drawn to. We must still stand up for the rights of those who are oppressed and work for the common good through all the systems and channels we can find. But we have to do it with the knowledge that no human-made system will save us. They can't. They're not designed to do that. They're designed to benefit those who designed them. We can seek to reform them or create new systems, but none will be perfect, and none of them will save us.
Some of us, for all of us
Only going within and changing our inner world will save any of us – and if enough of us undertake this difficult work, it will ultimately save all of us. This is the only power structure that works. Jesus spoke of a "remnant" who would save the world. That remnant understands that there is no "us" and "them." There's only "some of us for all of us."
The “some of us” are those who are dedicated to doing the hard work of changing the world within ourselves from one of competition, selfishness, and hatred into a world of cooperation, generosity, and love. This is the only world we can change, and the good news is that whatever world we build on the inside is the world we project to the outside, and that is what ultimately changes that outside world. Only cooperative, generous, and loving people can create a cooperative, generous, and loving world. Create that world within, and it is all you will see without.
I have seen this happen on a small scale in my own life. I spent most of my life, from my teenage years into my 40s, being an angry, selfish, and unkind human being. My parents' divorce when I was 9 years old set up this pattern, and over the years, it destroyed a lot of my relationships and led me to become so depressed I was desperate for a change.
My seeking led me to Wayne Dyer, who I call my "gateway guru," and then on to other mystics and metaphysical teachings, through Buddhism and Sufism, right on through to A Course in Miracles. All of these teachers and teachings showed me how to work on changing the world within – ridding myself of the angry ego that I had installed as my dictator all those years. It was a revolution rooted in love, and while I still battle anger demons from time to time, my inner world is far more peaceful than it ever has been.
What happened in those years outside of myself is where the true miracle occurred, though. My angry, cynical friends began to drop away and were replaced by caring, kind, and generous people. The world I had once seen as plotting my destruction or always a source of angry reactions simply melted away. A world of kindness, love, compassion, and joy replaced it. In short, when I changed my inner world from one of anger to one of love, the world outside of me adjusted accordingly.
As within, so without
The same thing happens at the macro level. When enough of us realize there is no easy button (because, as A Course says in Chapter 31, all the roads outside of us "lead to disappointment, nothingness, and death”) and we dedicate ourselves to the hard work of recreating our inner world, then we will ultimately change, and thus save, the world around us.
You may say I'm a dreamer, but I assure you, I am not the only one. I have arrived at this point by doing exactly what A Course says each of us can do, which is to try all the paths the world offers us in pursuit of that Easy Button before we realize "they are, but one" and every single one of them ends in "disappointment, nothingness, and death."
A Course tells us when we're tired of treading the same hopeless roads out here, we must "go beyond it." The lesson is not to discover that there is no choice at all in this physical world. The lesson, A Course says, is to learn what all this is for.
It is for the purpose of realizing that this world teaches us that we are all in this together. We can have no interest apart from the interests of anyone else.
The politics of this world keeps us choosing sides – what's best for me, your interests be damned. A Course teaches us that we must be concerned about what is in the best interest of us all. And, if we are the ones who can see that this is the lesson, then we must be "the some of us" who have a responsibility to work for the good of "all of us." Let me say that again …
"The lesson's purpose," A Course tells us, "is to teach you that what your Holy sibling loses, you have lost, and what they gain is what is given you."
Do you want safety and security? Make sure we all have it, and it is given to you. Do you want everyone fed, clothed, and housed? Make sure we all have it, and it is given to you. Do you want to have an opportunity to prosper and pursue your dreams and desires? Make sure we all have it, and it is given to you.
Whatever it is you want for yourself, you must want it for the world, or you will never find it. Oh, you may get all the money in the world, or all the fame in the world, or all the power and prestige in the world, but that's all fleeting and impermanent.
If you want peace, if you want joy, if you want love that is never-ending and unconditional, you must give it to everyone you meet, everyone you think of, everyone you love, and everyone you hate. Only then is it also given to you. This is not just about what you can get in the outside world. That all falls away in time. The truth is this: Until we can give everyone around us, friend and foe alike, the joy, peace, love, security, compassion and generosity we want, we will never receive it, and the world around us will reflect that selfishness.
There is no easy button here. Not for anyone on any political side. There never will be in this outside world. But, when we do the hard work of pulling up the roots of our selfishness, greed, separation and hatred from within our hearts and minds and plant instead the seeds of generosity, open-heartedness, unity, and love, then we share the fruit of that labor with those around us, we will be given all that we think is missing in this world. At that moment, we will find that the easy button only exists when we can all press it together.
Join me over on BlueSky if you want to keep up with me over there!
Music for the Journey:
“Make it Easier” - Indigo Girls
About the Motley Mystic:
The Motley Mystic is an online community for people who have realized that the truth speaks with many voices. There is no one religion, philosophy, institution, or dogma that captures the whole Truth and nothing but the Truth. No one needs to swear allegiance to one line of thought or belief to discern Truth because Love is the only thing that’s real. That’s what we explore at the Motley Mystic - all the tools and strategies we need to remove our barriers to Love and live fully as our true Divine Self.
Candace Chellew is the founder of Motley Mystic as well as Jubilee! Circle, an interfaith spiritual community in Columbia, S.C. She is also the author of Bulletproof Faith: A Spiritual Survival Guide for Gay and Lesbian Christians, published in 2008 by Jossey-Bass, and the founder and senior editor emeritus of Whosoever: An Online Magazine for LGBTQ People of Faith. She is also a musician and avid animal lover.
Thanks again Candace. Just what I needed, when I needed it.
LOVED this Candace. We really already know this, but seem to always need these gentle reminders. THANK YOU.