Tending to the Gardens We've Been Given, Part II

“What have you done with the garden that was entrusted to you?”

–Antonio Machado

The current U.S. president has used a wrecking ball to destroy the East Wing of the White House, a place he does not own, provided to him at the people’s behest, that he was to respect and take care of. Instead Trump acts as if this temporary residence is an extension of Mar-A-Lago. He’s trying to build a 90,000 square foot ballroom at a cost of $300 million and counting, by “selling” its construction to powerfully rich donors, which means there’s no government oversight, donors whom Trump will have to owe, perhaps by providing more ways to enrich them at the people’s expense.

Trump’s doing this at a time when government employees are unable to work or get paid, when our health care premiums are increasing, when the cost of living is mounting, when ICE and other federal agents continue to terrorize many of our neighborhoods, when the military has amassed ships and troops in the Caribbean against Venezuela, a country that has not threatened the U.S. nor has the wherewithal to fight back against its overbloated military machine.

A wrecking ball is not just a real thing here. It’s a hell of a metaphor for how Trump has handled the economy, the immigration system, the judicial system, the healthcare system, the educational system, the federal administrative state, and the Constitution.

He was given a “garden”--the presidency–and like an actual White House garden, the Rose Garden, he’s trampled over everything.

The third branch of government has become a tool for Trump’s vanity and petty vengeance. It’s become his plaything. Where he can do anything he wants because the spineless Republican Party in Congress won’t do anything to stop him, and the opposition Democratic Party is too fragmented and out of touch to fully challenge him.

Even major players in the mass media, major universities, and big high-tech corporations have caved in to this wanna-be dictator/king.

Nonetheless, most Americans aren’t bending at the knee.

You can see this in the seven million or so who took part in the “No Kings” protests of October 18 across the country, in the disciplined and creative community resistance to ICE raids and kidnappings, in how many are standing up, speaking out, and fighting back. You can see this in the polls that show Trump with the worst negative numbers since his first presidency, which was the worst of any president since Nixon.

This is the irresponsibility that entitled white men with power tend to exhibit. I’m talking about those people who actually believe that “white” is a race to be dominant over others, that men are superior to women, that heterosexuality is the only state of being human, that the nation-state is above the world. Those scared, “small,” and empty men, and the women who go along with them, when they amass power tend to be what Trump has become–a “wrecking ball.”

To expand on this, there are many “gardens” all of us have been entrusted with. What have we done with these?

The Creator spirit, whatever you call it, the spirit that is all life and our life, has provided us with all we need. Yes, individually many are brought into the world with ailments, disabilities, and other calamities. But for the most part, human beings have been given this magical, multiflorous, and marvelous planet. It’s our home, a place we should cherish and take care of. But under capitalism, colonialism and empire, we’ve trampled underfoot as much as we can. For over 500 years, and perhaps as long as 5,000 years since so-called civilization emerged, we’ve poisoned much of the soil and air. Extraction of minerals, but especially fossil fuels, has turned upside down the intrinsic balance of our mother.

What have we done with each other? Wars and more wars. We’re still in a culture of war. You know this when the largest budget of this country is for the military, instead of our health, our housing, our wellbeing. In this country, firearms are the leading cause of death for young people ages one to seventeen. War abroad and war within.

What have we done with our bodies? In a hundred years, with processed foods, manufactured sugars, and sedentary but stressed lives, we are at the unhealthiest point in most developed countries. And this in a world that still has famines, malnutrition, and starvation, where at least a quarter of the human population has high levels of acute food insecurity.

What about our families? Domestic violence and abuse plaques at least 10 million people in the United States: 24 people per minute today become victims. Families are falling apart. The degrading economy is the main culprit, not cultural shifts. What have we done with the families in our care?

What about our psyches? Our potential for purpose and meaning? Our individual gifts, talents, and attributes each one of us are born with? Where are the elders, the initiation rites, the ceremonies marking development for each child, adolescent, and adult? Where are the tools, resources, and connections needed to raise a solid, well-rounded, and initiated next generation?

If all our religions and moral precepts have any meaning, why have we abandoned so much of the planet, the people, and the peace?

Shame, punishment, and throwing people away won’t solve any of this. We need to give people what they need, including an expansive and extensive educational base, to take care of all our gardens. This is the one thing our teachings, faiths, and moral upbringing should have instilled in all of us: Be responsible for what we’ve been given.

If this country is to blossom, we have to stop the wrecking balls. Time to reconnect, to re-establish our relationships with dignity and compassion. It’s time to flower, not wreck or trample over. Time to be fully involved and active in regenerating all the gardens provided us to tend to and to grow.