Four Wasted Years? Or Four Years of Kabbalistic Study?

In today’s New York Times, opinion columnist Michelle Goldberg writes, “But when I think back, from my obviously privileged position, on the texture of daily life during the past four years, all the attention sucked up by this black hole of a president has been its own sort of loss. Every moment spent thinking about Trump is a moment that could have been spent contemplating, creating, or appreciating something else.” 

Between us, it’s not only thinking about Trump that has been such a drain on thinking. Humans do this with all kinds of things. 

Ever had a loose tooth? Most of us have. Think of the attention you paid it at the time. When it came out or was repaired by the miracle of modern dentistry, your attention to it stopped on a dime. 

Ever ended a friendship? A co-worker connection? A romance? Under ‘unfinished’ circumstances? It, whichever ending you are contemplating right now, became the filter through which you saw everything until, somehow, you were able to ‘finish’ it internally. 

Ever gotten an A- on an exam because of an answer whose page in the textbook you can see in your mind, but you just can’t quite see the answer? That minus will niggle at your thought till you focus on it and become a little more philosophical about it. Oh well, you’ll tell yourself, can’t ace every exam.  

What happens at the end of each of these scenarios? 

You no longer focus on the glitch. 

You change the subject. 

You think about something else. 

Eventually, the ouch of the situation fades in the face of more and newer daily experience. 

Back to Michelle Goldberg’s lament. It’s not the first one I’ve heard. Is it for you? I shouldn’t think so. Periodically, over the past five years, really, because it includes Mr. Trump’s campaign for the highest office in the land, persons all over the globe have bemoaned the time spent on such a loathsome subject. 

In our defense as humans, the issue of Mr. Trump is put before us daily, hourly, momently in newspapers, on radio, in the blogosphere. The news cycle is indeed 24-hour.  

There have been plenty of articles about how to recover from the relentless onslaught of news, news, and more news. Most of the time, in case you hadn’t noticed, it isn’t new by any stretch of the imagination. 

But back to what do we do now? Because that is the question I’m always interested in answering for myself, and for all of you. 

Take a leaf out of your own past. 

You know what to do. I promise you. 

CHANGE THE SUBJECT. 

But first, and you already know how to do this, too, you turn to the subject that is drawing your attention, and you study it, as if it is a cipher.  

I offer Ms. Goldberg this question: If you were a student of kabbalah, the mystical branch of Judaism, what could you learn from this attention drain that would allow you to put it to bed? 

Each of us will have learned something different from Mr. Trump. 

Craft a sentence, one, that, FOR NOW, will help you let go of this obsessive siphon. 

Here’s mine: A black hole is an endlessly empty abyss of need. The charlatan in the White House is so damaged that he cannot even recognize what he needs. That’s just plain sad. 

Now, it’s on me to change the subject. 

Did you vote? Do you have a plan to vote?  

I can very happily say that I left my house for the fifth time since February yesterday to go stand in a soft drizzle of rain socially-distanced from others who wished to exercise their right to franchise, and I voted in person. It will give me great delight today to throw out the absentee ballot that has been on my desk for months as a Plan B. 

Now I’ve had a long time to contemplate the Toddler-in-Chief. I have written much about my horror at what he has put us through so my sentence is a little more all-encompassing than others might be. Find the narrative for yourself that lets you put it down—even if just for half an hour. 

Then, Beloved, change the subject. Are the fall leaves beautiful where you are? Is the rain gentle? Are you reading something scrumptious? Do you allow for surges of romance to imbue your marriage? Afternoon delight, anyone? 

Do this over and over again, and we will heal ourselves of this chronic black hole-itis, and get on with the lives of inspiration we are meant to live here on Planet Earth. Start now, Ms. Goldberg. 

Dr. Susan Corso is a spiritual teacher, the founder of iAmpersand, and the author of The Mex Mysteries, the Boots & Boas Books, and spiritual nonfiction. Her website is susancorso.com.