Last Tuesday the United States had it's quadrennial election for President. Many were hoping for a "blue wave" that would erase Trumpism and put Obama-ism back in vogue. It didn't happen, at least not to the extent to which many hoped. Instead, the wave(s) that have reared up are ones of patriarchal politics and some extreme forms of toxic capitalism, rugged individualism, and a divisive acidity to American unity. Volumes are being discussed and written about the illness that is consuming us, and I'm not talking about the Coronavirus Pandemic, though that is also hitting new record highs.
I would be interested in discussing one aspect that I believe is playing itself out in all that is happening. That aspect is the one of belonging. I'm deep into a wonderful book: Belonging: Remembering Ourselves Home by Toka-Pa Turner. A premise she presents is how wrapped up in belonging is the concept of scarcity and it's opposite plenty or enough. I posted a question on Facebook tonight that I got from her: Are you running on the treadmill of never enough? When we experience scarcity it frequently follows that we feel excluded or separated from belonging. I am speculating that a large measure of the "great divide" in the United States that we're seeing has the lack of belonging at its central core. The heart beat enlivening that lack is the fear or experience of scarcity.
So, for discussion here I'd be interested in your reflections and sharing:
1. What feelings or thoughts arise about your own belonging?
2. Do you feel like you have enough? (Enough time, money, identity, recognition/success, attention, love....)
3. If so, what do you credit with giving you the enough feeling? Is it good luck/hard work that has provided you with all you need? Or is it an attitudinal pinnacle that has caused you to step outside of the cultural and social definitions such that those hold no sway over you any more?
4. If you don't have enough, what would "fill your tank?"
5. If you wish to stray into the swamp of armchair social analysis, and you agree that our country's divisions are at least in part due to a powerful lack of enough, what would we need to begin doing as a country to address this?
