Jerry's piece this week took me by surprise. We both took the election really hard, but Jerry is usually so grounded that I expected his shock would wear off over the weekend, and he'd return to something like normalcy. So I was certainly surprised by the continued note of despondency in his piece.
As the days go on, however, I'm becoming more and more aware that there is not and will not be a return to normalcy, not as we knew it, on this side of this election. The political divisions between red and blue have been getting sharper for years, but this election was so divisive, and the sense of recrimination, disgust and betrayal so deep, that our society seems to have split asunder.
We have been talking here about how the purpose of TTW is not primarily to make ourselves or our clients into better athletes. That's just a side effect. Rather, we're engaging in concrete, embodied practices with the goal of becoming better people.
So now the universe has seen fit to give us a new playing field--one with the highest of stakes--to really test the TTW principles. What does "better people" mean in a divided nation? What does "better people" mean in a country in which the legitimacy of our governmental system is breaking to pieces before our eyes?
If TTW is more than just talk--and it is--then here is where the rubber hits the road. It may look like we're trying to be better golfers, or tennis players, or whatever. But by practicing being in the present moment, not fleeing from what is, we become more skillful at living in this challenging world.