Dear America

Dear America,

I understand that life is challenging right now. You are scared, lonely, angry, suspicious, even apathetic. It may feel like you can’t breathe, like all the madness around you will just keep getting worse. It can feel overwhelming. But you don’t have to choose to be overwhelmed. These challenges are growing pains, necessary obstacles on the way to becoming a greater version of yourself.

It isn’t pleasant to look at our shadow. It isn’t pretty to see that behind impressive feats of dominance are people who paid for it with their lives. It isn’t fun to recognize that our wealth and power have come at a great cost to our people and the health of the ecosystem. It is downright painful to admit that while we have done marvelous things together, we have also done terrible things together. Most of the time, we weren’t even aware of the damage we were doing, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.

Integrating the darkness and the light is an ego-shattering experience. Try not to react, as your ego surely will try to defend itself, but you understand it isn’t an enemy that is attacking you — it is the truth. The truth is destroying old delusional paradigms we thought were real and replacing them with much more honest and accurate portrayals. If you make an enemy of the truth, you can never be honest.

While we grieve the loss of identity, the loss of purity, the loss of our photoshopped self-image, we will feel like lashing out at each other, blaming and punishing one another for this pain. Try to restrain yourself. Only by consciously crumbling will we find a truer version of who we are, a stronger and more noble self, a wiser and more honest character, a humility and integrity that warrants leadership.

So take this moment to breathe, to reflect, to let the truth in. Listen to what others are saying and contemplate it, integrate it into your perspective to make you wiser. Resist the urges to fight, internally or externally; fighting only delays the inevitable transformation. Do some soul-searching to recognize who you really are and how you fit into this time in the world. These aren’t our end of days but the beginning of a new era for us, a new chapter in our story as a nation. We are beautiful, diverse, talented, brilliant people, and we work so well together when we choose to. Let us step into the next decade and the next century with a greater sense of love and conviction. Our world needs us, now more than ever.