The List for Resilience

*“Growing and Learning,” 16.7″x21.7″, digital drawing, Mark R. Turner.* *Prints on Redbubble, Fine Art America, and TeePublic.*

Most of us are still able to list evils and this indicates that the Good is not vanquished. In fact, the majority of people recognize evil because they still hold the ideals of righteousness. The challenge is our resolve and encouragement of one another to practice the good.

Each act of good is an act of resistance to evil. In the face of those who say “Resistance is futile” we continue to keep alive the reality of the Good, the loving, the just, the choices for the better. Living the good contributes to humanity evolving out of the current morass.

Listing & Naming Stimulates Reform

The evils that we notice add up in lists whether we speak or make protest signs about them or not. But let us bring them out in the open for diagnosis and healing. Admitting our wrongs is the beginning of growing out of them. Those oligarchs, politicians, and religionists who have cultivated evils responsible for the general degradation of the world must join in the confession. Restitution and renewal will result.

The Resilience of Life reaches deep into our souls for the righteous counter response to each wrong we list. No one can answer evil alone, but each of us holding the attitude of humble love will form the resilient answer as a community.

An example of a short list of wrongs and responses could begin like this

… the deeds and words of the Trump/MAGA cult have imposed the general outlook of:

Fear, Depression, Desperation

EXPERIENCE: a sense of danger being closer, of being unable to respond to seemingly impossible circumstances, loss of creativity, sensing we are being forced into circumstances we did not choose

COUNTER RESPONSE: Assure each other of our solidarity. Do not isolate but let love draw us together to reaffirm in respectful conversation what is right. Establish personal routines of positive behavior and follow them with discipline. Participate in community groups which encourage creative solutions.

Doubting the Reality of Truth

EXPERIENCE: feeling at the mercy of misinformation and manipulation, observing privileged individuals’ preferences being promoted as Truth, promotion of the idea that Truth is personal fantasy we make real

COUNTER RESPONSE: Maintain a personal discipline of reviewing the foundational tenets of Truth and remind each other of them (Bill of rights, Constitution, scriptures, writings of moral and ethical leaders). Support and participate in education. Reduce input from untrusted and unvetted sources (see below). Fact check and find credentials of pundits and officials. A person proves they are of the Truth by concrete deeds of good.

Increased Poverty

EXPERIENCE: cost of living increasing, public help decreasing, health care and retirement disappearing

COUNTER RESPONSE: Share with each other and create with what you have. Resist the impulse to hoard or be stingy. Affirm that there is enough and call for the rich to contribute their fair share of public funds.

Loss of Faith

EXPERIENCE: feeling betrayed by institutions and religionists who were supposed to have been guardians and promoters of faith leading to wisdom, health in mind and spirit, community care, and personal development; loyalty to personalities and the group is demanded

COUNTER RESPONSE: Establish regular personal contemplation not mediated by dogma, prescribed ritual, or a personality.
Meditate upon affirmations of Love as the energy of creation and upon your connection as a member of the Greater Body growing forward.
Despite feeling small, follow your impulses toward the Good. Trust that the impulse for Love and Good are in others building a cumulative growth toward the better. Open exclusive religion to include all humanity. Disengage from the old view of God as a removed aloofness and from the dogma that spirit and material are separate. Affirm that good spirituality is expressed and manifested in concrete, positive behavior for the common good.

Loss of Education

EXPERIENCE: leadership casts doubt on the value of it, ignorance replaces educated leadership, the powerful are dismantling and attacking educational institutions, untruth is being taught, books and curriculums are being banned

COUNTER RESPONSE: Support educators who teach the Truth. Engage in keeping banned materials available. Promote educational events and organizations. Maintain your personal on-going education throughout life. Find credentials of educators and sift posers out. Expose pseudo-science and promote real scientists.

Skepticism of People in Government

EXPERIENCE: assuming they are corrupt, incompetent, hypocritical, and even criminal; assuming they are in government only to serve their own greed for power and wealth; assuming the worst from government rather than expecting it to have our best interests at heart; democratic standards for society being trashed

COUNTER RESPONSE: To the extent possible promote fair and open elections. Voice opposition to wrongdoing by government people and agencies. Depose self-centered officials and promote qualified candidates who are genuinely intent upon the common good. Do what is right even if the government will not do what is right. Join voices with others calling for reform (see above in “Education” and “Doubting Truth”). Run for office if you are qualified.

Destruction, Lawlessness

EXPERIENCE: violence against our own citizens, brutality, killing, attacking other countries unprovoked, pursuit of war, supporting genocide, disposing of “different” people, abuse of natural resources

COUNTER RESPONSE: Practice non-violence in word and deed. Encourage the military to defend citizens and to refuse to follow unconstitutional orders for aggression against non-threatening states. Raise public protest against abusive police state policies and wars of imperial aggression. Defend “different” people and assist the marginalized in avoiding abuse. Practice care for the planet. Call for regulations to restore and steward natural resources. Call for justice in the courts and enforcement of justice.

Of course, the list could be longer. These are just a few wrongs and counter responses without citing in-depth scholarship. We can benefit from many knowledgeable presenters who are speaking up with more detailed insight. Making this list seems to increase momentum and complexity with our pent-up frustration.

Don’t let it overwhelm you. Don’t let rage conjure scenes of revenge. Counter this by thinking about solutions. Remember the purpose is to open the door to restitution and renewal, not descend into civil war. It is about the Truth, which will set us free.

Affirm the Resilience of Life

We can nurture life, but we do not generate it “solo” as independent individuals. It is the on-going process of the Will which has been creating the universe from the beginning and is now working in billions of us. Some are refusing to cooperate with the Will for Good. But most of us feel this energetic impulse that we call the love of life. We can know this Will and cooperate with it. Long ago we reached the stage of development in which we can either

flow with the progression, which was started 13.8 billion years ago,

indulge short-lived, self-centered appetites resulting in extinction.

Our onward development toward the Good requires our openness to the unknown, freely confessing we do not know, nor have we become the ideal to which we aspire. But we voluntarily join with the Will to do our part in this cosmic growth. So that when we each finish our times on Earth, we will be satisfied that we have put our substance into the highest intentions of unifying love for this universe.