Bruce's Singing Cyclist Musings
A blog about life as seen by a retired Middle School Science Teacher from California
Seeking Common Ground
We’re on the third full day after the 2020 Election and we’re still waiting for results. Despite not sleeping well from Tuesday night on this week, I have been able to maintain an almost surreal state of calm during this turbulent time.
I can’t explain it. Maybe that explains it.
Yesterday was great. I had three Zoom sessions and each one filled a totally different niche in my life. The first was a small group Lunch meeting with our Financial Advisor, Tom Vaughn followed by a 4:30 Yoga session for an hour and the “working” day finished with a church choir rehearsal at 7:00 p.m.
This was a well timed busy day to keep my mind occupied while the wait for the results of the 2020 Presidential Election to be finalized. I’m getting tired of hearing the words “battleground” states. It makes it sound like we are at war. I for one am not at war. I want the Election to be conducted as elections are supposed to be conducted in this country and then let’s get on with the business of making the country great. So much rides on this presidential race. So much rides on this election.
I don’t think that many folks on the Republican/Conservative side have a grip on the true nature of the horse they are riding. My hope is that Biden-Harris can garner the Electoral votes that they need and start bringing us all back in the direction of together. It’s going to take a long time and lots of sincere, focused positive energy to get this country back on track.
The White Supremacist culture must be addressed before this country can be linked to the word great. President Trump’s slogan, “Make America Great Again,” is simply not a true statement. Greatness has not yet been achieved. It will begin to be achieved as soon as we acknowledge our national problem of race.
My feeling is that we can begin to address the issue of race by creating a process similar to the one used in South Africa after the collapse of Apartheid. South Africans began a dialogue on race through a Truth and Reconciliation Commission which gave people a chance to hear the experiences of others and begin to reconcile their differences. We simply need to start communicating with each other again. This division stuff must come to an end.
Along with a Truth and reconciliation Commission, we need a common media outlet that every feels comfortable watching and listening to with each other. When we have the same basic information, we then have a common foundation on which to debate our differences because we will know what our differences are. I don’t think that we have that now.
My passionate fear of “The Right” is undoubtedly matched by a passionate fear of “The Left.” The way to start addressing these largely unfounded fears is get rid of “Right Wing” media and “Left Wing” media and replace them with a “Middle Media.” It will need to be a place where people all along the political spectrum can gather, listen to, think about and converse about the issues of the day. In the media market we have today, common ground is nearly impossible to find.
We need dialect on guns, immigration, reproductive rights, health care, regulations, law enforcement and so much more. It’s time to get busy. Let’s use this moment in time to get it done.
A little anxious, but still calm. Thanks to Joe Biden’s steady, consistent, confident voice, I remain calm. Thanks, Joe.
Still feeling calm. Thanks to MSNBC Journalists for preparing me to be patient in waiting for 2020 Election results.
I woke up this morning with a wonderful sense of calm.
Some of you know that this is shorthand for “What Would Jesus Do?”
My political belief system, in fact my entire belief system is based on the Biblical New Testament teachings of the man known as Jesus of Nazareth. These teachings can be found in the books of Mathew and Luke in the Bible. These teachings are attributed to Jesus. This is important because the teachings of Jesus are the foundation of the Christian religion.
I bring this up right now to make a point about how many Christian denominations have strayed from the core message of Jesus as expressed in the Beatitudes from The Sermon on the Mount and The Sermon on the Plain. The link above goes into some detail on the 10 Beatitudes.
Christianity is at the core of my beliefs, although my religious affiliation has broadened over time. I found that the Christianity of my youth was becoming more dogmatic and less in line with my liberal religious upbringing. Christianity now is a part of my Unitarian Universalist faith.
I urge you to read about the Beatitudes in more detail in the second paragraph link above. As you read them, I encourage you to judge yourself and your political views with them. If you are a Christian, do your current views and political leanings align with the teachings of Jesus? Here is a list of the Beatitudes:
As Mr. Spock says, Live Long and prosper.
More specifically, baseball during COVID. I grew up on baseball. When I was in elementary school in the 1960’s, baseball was the sport American boys had in common. I am pleased and proud that girls now enjoy “America’s Pass Time” as well.
Every single one of us dreamed of someday playing major league baseball and being a World Series hero. Maybe it was hitting the walk-off home run in a deciding game 7, making the game saving catch, striking out the last opposition batter. Whatever it was, we all shared that dream together. We didn’t always talk about it, but we all knew what we wanted to do when we grew up.
Well, it’s now 2020 and our playing days are over. For that matter our kids playing days are over, save for those slow pitch softball teams that some of us belong to. But, those dreams never go away. Today they are being lived by a new generation of young boys and girls. The dreams of playing in the “Big Leagues” are now theirs.
I’m inspired to write about this now because the American baseball season ended yesterday as the World Series (not the World Baseball Classic which really is the world series of baseball) of this difficult and trying year of 2020 was decided.
“My” team, the Los Angeles Dodgers won the series in six games over a young and exciting Tampa Bay Rays team. I watched the players, manager, coaches and families celebrate on the field as you would expect them to celebrate during a viral pandemic.
But, underneath those masks were those school boys who, 10-15 years ago, were like me in the 1960’s. Kids with a dream of one day being a hero on the biggest stage in baseball.
This World Series is special. We needed this. We needed this sense of connection to the normal. We needed to see these men go out and play this little boys game with the same joy and unbridled enthusiasm that they played with when they were little boys not that long ago.
They brought me joy. They brought me happiness. They brought me hope for next season. Yes, there will be a next season and next season will be better than ever.
One last thought. The post game celebration for the winning Dodgers and their fans (including me at home). I watched the celebration as braodcast by several different news organizations. Each one had it’s own take and angle on what it looks and sounds like to be a champion.
But, what stood out to me were the names of the backs of their uniforms. Hernandez, Urias, Jansen, Betts, Kelly, Floro, Rios, Gonzales, Kershaw, Roberts. They were a diverse community of human beings coming from many different countries, socio economic groups, races and beliefs. But there they were as a unified group. Smiling, laughing, hugging (yes, even hugging) and enjoying this common moment of celebration together reminding me that we are indeed more alike than we are different.
So, there are lessons to be learned from sports. Many of you probably don’t look at the Sports Pages (I date myself because you find those in newspapers although. I guess you’ll also find them on Web Sites). Sports offers us a chance to be those little kids again, all with a common dream and a color blind eye.
“I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways; I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight, I can divine it by conscience. And from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice.”
Unitarian Minister Theodore Parker
Barack Obama used these words often, including at his inaugural speech on January 20, 2009. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. used these words in a speech given at the National Cathedral on March 31, 1968 titled “Remaining Awake Through A Great Revolution.” Listen to the full speech here.
Professor Clayborn, a professor of history at Stanford University, discusses this quote in an NPR interview with Melissa Block on “All Things Considered.”
This quote has been used many times over the last nearly two centuries. The quote is attributed to the Unitarian Abolitionist Minister, Rev. Theodore H. Parker in a sermon that he gave in 1853.
Wherever the words came from, they ring true for me today. In the face of great darkness, know that through it all justice will prevail. I believe that.
October 15, 2020
In the words of Stacy Horn, author of “Imperfect Harmony: Finding Happiness Singing With Others,” singing is “when musical vibrations move through you, altering your physical and emotional landscape.”
And you don’t have to be what is considered “good” at sining to enjoy the rewards of singing. In Horn’s words “singing is like the infusion of the perfect tranquilizer, the kind that both soothes your nerves and elevates your spirits.”
Science supports Horn’s claim. I feel good when I sing because of the release of hormones called Endorphins. You will too. These endorphins are associated with feelings of pleasure. Research also shows that another hormone, Oxytocin, is released during singing. Oxytocin enhances feelings of trust and bonding.
Another recent study cited by Horn tries to make the case that “music evolved as a tool of social living.” So, the pleasure that comes from singing together is our “evolutionary reward” for coming together in communities instead of remaining isolated cave dwellers.
So, as we sing together today, next week and in the weeks, months and years to come, hold this in your heart: When you sing, wherever it may be, you celebrate the community. When we sing, we sing as one and we sing together.
Wednesday, September 23, 2020
I couldn’t sleep last night. My mind would not quiet down. Why? Seeds of doubt about the results of the upcoming election would not leave me alone and I was unable to meditate them away.
But, quiet them I must. Along with my liberal and progressive kindred spirits, I need to let go of the idea that if Joe Biden and Kamala Harris don’t win the presidency this November, that our Democracy is doomed to a downward death spiral toward a totalitarian Oligarchy similar to the one in Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
Surely it will not be a step in the right direction towards true American greatness should the Republican Party control the White House for the next four years. Yet, neither will it be a terminal event in the history of our republic.
This is where I turn to history. Historians remind us that there was life before us and that there will be life after us. Historians like Doris Kearns Goodwin, Michael Beschloss and John Meacham remind us of that. It is stories from the past that bring me solace and comfort in this dark time. Meacham’s book “The Soul of America,” focuses on several events in the presidential history of the United States. Any of these events could easily have been interpreted to be “the end of life as we know it.”
History shows us that Americans and American institutions are quite resilient. Even when it seems that our current times can get no darker, there exists at least one lone vibrating photon of light energy to show us the way.
My efforts to elect a new president and change the balance of power in the Senate over to the Democrats will not in any way waiver. I am writing personal letters to “reluctant” voters through the non-partisan organization Vote Forward. I am selectively donating money to candidates up and down the ballot. I proudly display an “I Believe…” yard sign in the front yard and I remind myself and others with a sidewalk chalk message that says “Stay Focused, Black Lives Matter.”
But, what I have resolved is that my personal happiness and hopefulness will not depend on a larger collective decision that I cannot control. As the Serenity Prayer reads: “God grant me the courage to change the things I can change, the serenity to accept the things that I can’t change and the wisdom to know the difference.”
Coping with the Upcoming American Election
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