ON LYING.

I’m keeping my subscription to the New York Times.

We’re on a tight budget now, and I’ve thought more than once of canceling my digital subscription. But the NYT is the one mainstream press that has actually used the word “lie” in its reporting on Trump, both before and since the Inauguration. Other media outlets have opted for “falsehood” or “fabrication,” or at best have said that he “repeated a lie.” They insist that using the word “lie” means that they have to know that he intended to deceive people by saying what he did: in this case, that his Inauguration was the best attended ever, and (this is even more dangerous and delusional) that 3-5 million people voted illegally, calling into question the fact  that his popular vote was far lower than Clinton’s.

Now Trump plans to use taxpayer dollars to launch an investigation into this outright lie. As Rep. Elijah Cummings said on MSNBC last night, “This is chilling.” When we hear people use the word, chilling…  what are we hearing? We ourselves feel this. We are more than angry. We are far more than fearful. We are way more than upset. We are seeing a horrendous nightmare, the stuff of dystopian novels, play out in real time, and we pass every day, in the marketplace and workplace, people who facilitated this or allowed it to happen. Chilling  is our visceral reaction to that. It is the body’s way of saying,  No, this is not be okay.

Maybe you don’t feel that way.

Maybe you feel numb, or paralyzed, or deeply depressed. Those, too, would be expected reactions. Evidently, some people are delighted. They want to see happening the policy changes that Trump is bringing about. Rounding up of immigrants, splitting up families, huge amounts of taxpayer money spent on walls with Mexico, creation of bad will with NATO and other countries, a sure-to-be deadly pipeline through native lands, exploiting our natural resources to make the few rich, while providing a relatively small number of temporary jobs, for what? Fossil fuels, when all indicators show that renewable sources of energy are where our money needs to go. Silencing of national agencies that protect and preserve our climate and resources. Anyone who is happy about this, or excuses these things because it will “help the economy’ or “bring back jobs” is enabling the machinations of a madman who has been given the reins of power. They believe these orders and bills are so great they can excuse the lies, the abuses of power and the outrageous behavior of Donald Trump.

Cuba. I'll be talking more about propaganda. Later.

So. It’s interesting that Trump doesn’t drink, or use drugs. Often, people who do not drink come from a family in which there was alcoholism or another severe addiction. They repress that addiction in themselves, only to have the genetic tendency come out elsewhere: food, religion, or, in this case money and power. In my years of counseling, I saw this again and again.

I think Donald Trump, like many addicts, is starved for love and affection. No matter his wealth and power, he will always suspect that everyone around him, his sycophants, his wife, even his children, are loyal because they fear/ need him for his money and power.

His behavior is like that of someone in the downward spiral of addiction. It can only get worse.

Everyone (and this includes NPR, all the news channels who’ve decided to normalize his presidency, and, sadly, most of the Democratic congress so far) who does not actively resist in some way is enabling him.

Those of us who grew up with addiction of any kind are suffering a bit more than others. We see playing out on a national/world stage the shame-filled and destructive scenes of our past. The rants, the outbursts, the enablers, the excuse-makers, the tap-dancing, and the lies.

In AA the saying goes, “How can you tell an alcoholic/addict is lying? A: Their lips are moving.”

Addicts lie for no reason. They believe their own lies. They live in a world of self-delusion, and we, their families, are faced with the painful choice of listening (which they will take as acquiescence) or confrontation (which they will turn around on you and blame you for as an attack.)

This is one of the reasons people in recovery strive to be scrupulously honest. I'll go into that a little further on.

So take a moment each day to separate truth from lies. Make sure you speak truth always. I know sometimes I tell the little lies, saying I like something that I don’t, that things are okay when they’re not…that sort of thing. Today I will endeavor to be honest in all my speaking and writing.

By the way, it’s in the Bible, “Thou shalt not bear false witness.” And lying is condemned in about 10 other places in the Hebrew and Christian scriptures. How do all the Christians who voted for Trump feel about that?

Down in the Swamp, Looking Up. A Spiritual Guide for the Resistance.

It’s been awhile. After I left the active ministry.. for now… I started a memoir, wrote a novel during NaNoWriMo, and dealt with some health problems, all the while adjusting to being a semi-retired farm wife caring for our son with autism. I’ve been able to spend some time with my grown children. My son Colin and I traveled to Cuba in December. I’ve found something beautiful and blessed in every day, be it a sunrise, or a flock of wild turkeys, a doe and fawn darting into the woods, the staff and teachers who treat my son so well, a fresh egg for breakfast.

And then there’s… the election.

 The day of election!

A few weeks later, (actually I tripped and hit my face but I did feel like I'd been smacked in the head!)

Up until November 8^th, I believed that of course Clinton would win, and we’d have heard the last of Trump, his horrific treatment of women, his racism, his hate-filled tirades, and seen the last of the bared teeth of his followers. I dressed in white to honor the suffragettes on the day I believed our first woman President would be elected. Sure, Clinton wouldn’t have been my first choice, but I felt confident she’d be a competent, reasonable, and capable executive.

That night, my daughter and I watched together as the terrible truth became clear. Seeing her grief was almost worse than feeling my own. How could this have happened?

I’ll admit that I wasn’t shocked. I’d been to New Jersey a few weeks earlier and, driving around the Southern part of the state, I saw sign after sign for Trump… and none for Clinton. And that was in a blue state!

In the weeks that followed, I believe that those of us who were alarmed by the coming regime of this egomaniacal, self-absorbed, and completely uninformed person responded each in our own way. Many of us celebrated the holidays with a sense that this might be our last joyful chance. Some of us went into denial and stopped watching TV or listening to news. Hundreds of thousands of women (and men) began preparations to resist his agenda, beginning with the magnificent, peaceful show of unity that happened Saturday all over the world.

And, blessedly, my daughter went to that march. I’m so delighted that she was able to be a part of that. What a feeling it must have been! This day will be such a part of history, and in my mind, those who went will see their activism based in their presence that day.

Since then, the insanity and bizarre behavior of Trump and his minions has continued on a daily basis to the horror of any thinking or reasonable person.

So this begins my ministry.

I believe that many of us are traumatized by what is happening in our world right now. And one of the things I’ve tried to do over these months of the campaign and the transition, and will be doing as long as this continues (and, for the record, I don’t expect it to last for four years) has been to contemplate and to bring my spiritual tools to gain some understanding of what is going on. Certainly, it’s a time unlike any other in our history. There have been times of fear and anxiety and grief. But usually these fears have been focused upon outside forces. Now we fear our own government, our own President.

To me, his behavior is like that of a dry drunk.

Much of what he does can be understood if we look at him as a person with a sickness and a personality disorder.

The real question is why so many citizens listened to him and believed him in spite of his lies, delusions, and horrible behavior? I have some ideas about that.

So what I plan to write about are some of the ways I have found to keep my spiritual house from falling apart while this all unfolds. I have some experience. Yes, I have actual credentials: twenty plus years in parish ministry, a certificate in Spritual Direction (Jungian and Dreamwork centered), and lots of time spent in meditation, primarily Buddhist-centered. I've also studied Family Systems, 12 Step programs, and "Appreciative Inquiry" styles of leadership. But my true wisdom comes from sixty years of lived experience: For almost all of my life, I’ve lived with an immediate family member who was actively alcoholic (sometimes more than one.) I know how to keep myself alive spiritually .

There’s a lot out there about resistance. Probably one of the best is the Indivisible movement. Doing just one thing a day can keep us from feeling helpless.

But this is a place where I’ll talk about spiritual tools. When Huston Smith died, I read that he prayed many times a day, God , you are so good to me. That’s been a great help to me. It always helps me to focus upon something: my great kids, the beautiful countryside, the good friends I have been blessed to have. I know my many atheist and humanist friends may find that notion unhelpful, but what I want to communicate is this: good happens, as often as bad. And it happens without your will. You and I may have different meanings for “god,” but the idea is to pause for gratitude.

It works for me.