There are different kinds of scary.

Halloween scary is fun. It can be spooky, sexy, and sweet all at the same time. Halloween scary is weirdly life-affirming, even as it evokes death and darkness. It’s an invitation for us to face the monsters and mysteries, inhabit the shadows, and maybe even become creepy-crawlies ourselves for a while. All in a context of good-natured play. Acknowledging and enjoying our fears, being delighted with them.

Scary politics, though… not so fun. The dire click-bait filling my inbox and newsfeeds with relentless doomsday predictions. The messaging carefully designed to exploit our biases and fears for profit and power, turning our fellow humans into real-life monsters. Worst-case scenarios on loudspeaker for months on end that stopped energizing and motivating me long ago, and now mostly just erode my spirit with the dull ache of existential dread, exhaustion, frustration, and helplessness. It’s nothing like the thrill of a good haunted house. Scary politics manages to be both anxiety-inducing and so fucking boring that I can barely stand it anymore.

I wish that I could turn the latter kind of scary (political-social-military-economic-environmental) into something more like the former kind of scary (boo! haha!). I wish I could play with it, have more fun with it. But the stakes are so high and really it’s no laughing matter. And it does seem to me that part of our contemporary problem is in the ways that we’ve come to treat politics like entertainment, like a game or a team sport, or a horror movie full of jump-scares to squeal at while munching popcorn. So, no — that ain’t it. I don’t think putting on a rubber J.D. Vance mask will do much to vanquish my fear of autocracy.

However, neither is it workable to just give in to dread. Whether that dread expresses as fatalism or as outrage, neither is sustainable in perpetuity.

I’m thinking about how to hold my fear. Not minimizing it; we’ve got good cause to be scared. But definitely not letting it get the better of me. Because the better of me — the better of us — is exactly what’s being called for.

Facing our fears + Bringing our better and calling it forth from each other + Dropping the dread = GORGEOUS.

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A number of folks have asked me about the power of prayer and intention as it applies to our upcoming elections. That’s a good question, a great topic. I don’t have one answer for it, but I can share a bit about how I’m trying to approach things.

First — it seems to me that while it may be perfectly fine to pray for particular outcomes, the deeper efficacy of prayer is less about the future and almost entirely about feeling empowered in the present.

Of course, I’m still praying for things to go how I want on election day. But I know that it simply doesn’t work to place all my hope out ahead of me in a specific outcome. It’s self-defeating to tie my satisfaction up in some knot of future conditions. If contentment and happiness are always out in the future, then the present tends to feel chaotic, woefully uncertain, and bleak. If I’m not being intentional about it, it’s real easy for me to slip into relating to life right now as a dystopian nightmare. And there’s not a lot of power in that.

Most of my prayer, therefore, needs to be for right now. Hope and satisfaction right now. Happiness, confidence, and strength right now. A prayer to know myself as resilient and clear, honest and present as I face my fears. A prayer to trust in humanity and to look for our best even as we’re all running scared. A prayer to remember our connection, our belonging. A prayer for faith in the principles of Truth, Justice, Progress, and Freedom.

The first step to lasting change — real transformation in myself and in the world — is always this step, right now.

Because no matter how the election goes, our struggles won’t be over. No matter what, our fears aren’t going to go away once and for all. I mean, I do believe that a blue wave will give everybody a much better shot at meeting our shared challenges together and I am very scared that the alternative will make everything much, much harder. But however it goes, we’re still going to have problems. We’re still going to have to muster hope and faith, clarity and strength. We’re going to have to keep working together and creating together.

Maybe the power of prayer isn’t so much about overcoming fear, but about living with fear, powerfully. Maybe the strength of intention isn’t so much about forcing things to go our way, but about being strong and clear regardless of circumstances, about nurturing creativity instead of despair, gorgeous faith rather than dread.

And then — yeah — I think orienting ourselves like this does, in fact, tend to lead to positive outcomes. We’re more likely to experience peace and love, harmony and beauty, if we believe: a) that it’s possible; and b) that we can be it and bring it. And if we believe that with all our hearts, we can actually find some right now, not just after November 5.

How do you know if a zombie likes someone? They ask for seconds.

I can’t wait to be with you this Sunday, October 27, 10:00am at q-Staff Theatre. With the divine Patty Stephens. XO, Drew

©2024 Drew Groves