LIVING WITH HEART

Candace A. Croft, Ph.D.
© 2006 Candace A. Croft

 Elected Hearts

My friend and I drove down the highway, glad the day was clear and pleasant.  We sipped specialty coffee topped with whipped cream as we amused our selves reading bumper stickers and billboards.  I support family values … I promise to lower taxes … John Doe, the education candidate … Get tough on crime … Health insurance for all Americans … America, Land of the Free … Don’t worry, be happy…  That slogans saturated the horizon was hardly surprising since the smell of autumn and elections was in the air. 

  According to its Celtic-Gaelic derivation, a slogan is a war cry used to bolster courage as troops charge forth and invoke fear in the enemy.  Something along the lines of “Faugh a Ballaugh” (Clear the way) and “Cha-gheill” (Never give up), I suppose, or the less ambitious, “Si Je Puis” (If I can).  A sound-byte society, we routinely consume information reduced beyond value to its generic level, usually without being aware that we are doing so.  Leading hectic lives, who has time for details?  Sages from various spiritual traditions have encouraged similar counsel about our journey through life:  Stay awake.  That seems especially wise advice when a war cry has been sounded.  When it comes to slogans, though, most of us fall asleep at the wheel. 

Slogans are appealing because they are mindlessly easy to remember.  We rely on headlines to define character without delving deeper into the details of the story.  We become lulled into believing we are saying something meaningful about a person or situation when we have said nothing worth noting.  Carbon dioxide to our souls, slogans dull our minds and senses until we begin to lose consciousness and, with it, our sacredness.

Standing for a complete thought, but providing only a taste of it, slogans shift us from awareness into automatic pilot.  Consider those electoral war cries.  Someone supports family values, education, justice, health, wealth, freedom, and happiness?  Well, hold the presses!  Hardly daring assertions, they say nothing.  What reasonable person does not hold those beliefs, at least publicly?  Are we honestly to believe some opponent supports illiteracy, crime, poverty, dis-ease, and the like?  Only if we are asleep.

As my dad used to state, “Listen to what a person does not say.  That will speak volumes.”  His advice seems to apply aptly to slogans.  As with life, their meaning does not appear on the surface.  To hear what is unstated requires that we be awake, think critically, question mindfully, and be conscious of the response.  For example, does the candidate support the values of a white, upper-class family, an abusive family, or the Manson family?  Are families defined as those partners who are single or married, with or without children?  Does education apply to everyone equally or simply those who can afford it?  Will taxes be reduced across the board or result only in tax breaks for the wealthy?  Will being tough on crime extend to white-collar sins?  How might all of this be accomplished, by fairy dust and magical incantations? 

Despite our progress, women are still directed to fall asleep at the wheel, if we must insist on driving.  We are expected to submit to a form of spiritual slavery by sedating independent thought.  Don’t believe me?  I was admonished by a supervisor to “downplay my intelligence because a woman with a doctorate in southwest Wisconsin is too intimidating,” and, yes, that warning came after the turn of the enlightened, 21^st century.  As a woman who appreciates those goddesses who went before me and struggled that I might exercise my divinely-granted free will, I object to my mind being doped and my vital soul supplanted by the liberal and careless use of mindless slogans.  Perhaps all would be better served if we woke up and realized that critical thought is neither dangerous nor madness when practiced by double X-ers, but nodding off at the wheel is.  Awareness is a virtue.  No bird ever took wing while asleep.

Slogans work by following two basic tenets of human nature.  We strive for closure, so when we hear a slogan, we automatically make assumptions about what was unstated.  Second, we tend to like those we perceive as being like us.  If we want to elect the person on our side, we assume the unstated specifics are congruent with our own values and beliefs.  If we want to vote the person out of our in-group, we insert the values of the Manson family.  Having supplied the missing information—who cares about accuracy?—we rest and automatically operate under the illusion that the person’s character has been exposed.  Slogans are dangerous when we start to nod off and mistakenly believe we know infinitely more about a person or a situation than we do.   

Worse, sleeping deeply for some time, we risk lapsing into a coma.  No longer content with unconsciously accepting the slogans of others, we become lazy and invent them for others.  We journey in a state of highway hypnosis, recklessly attaching bumper stickers to those we pass.  Others read them and accept them as if they are truth without questioning or checking for an endorsement. 

Inattentive driving is a wreck waiting to happen.  We may feel betrayed when we awaken and find our selves at the scene of an accident.  The public schools spent five figures of taxpayer dollars to write the corporate version of a slogan—a mission statement—and another five for a publicity campaign?  That was not how we assumed educational support would be implemented.  Truth be told, we betrayed our selves when we abdicated personal responsibility by hitting the snooze alarm and falling asleep at the wheel.

Every day we elect what to accept into and reject from our lives.  Sacredness is found in paying attention to the details of daily living.  A rose is merely another flower until one becomes aware of its essence—its woody stem, velvet petals, unfolding mystery, and enchanting aroma.  It is within the nuances that our lives gain meaning.

The inspired person stays awake and explores the nuances that motivate behavior and drive character.  Sometimes the wrong thing is done for the right reasons.  Conversely, the right thing can be done for the wrong reasons.  I know of no universal law that requires us to delve into the motivation of another.  In fact, sacred texts clearly state our limited ability to do so.  Given that, we might heed a sense of conscious reluctance before bolstering ego and raising a war cry against another.  Following karma, that war cry will eventually backfire to assassinate the crier’s character.

This month, track how many times slogans appear across the course of a day.  For example, was the person tidy/sloppy, outgoing/shy, rational/illogical, practical/capricious, angry/assertive … ?  Once you realize a slogan has been used, WAKE UP!, and dismiss it.  Refuse to let others vote for you.

The only character we are required to understand is our own.  One does not need a mirror, tea leaves, or the stilled surface of a sacred pool to scry into self and see what resides there.  Until we can see into our characters with crystal clarity, we will only find our selves reflected in another.  That is why trusting people view the world as generous and manipulative people see lies and deception.  It is why the unstated meaning underlying slogans created for another speaks volumes about self.

Write a few slogans that reflect your essence.  The benefit of a secret ballot is that you need not disclose what you have elected for your character.  When you consciously choose to align your intent with behavior, your actions will serve as a testament to your living spirit for those who are awake enough to see.

What do you think Judgment Day is all about if not tallying the specific ballots of what you have elected to be with your life?  Wake up and—

KEEP YOUR HEARTLIGHT SHINING