A couple days ago I was on a flight to LA for a flurry of book promotion and got to talking to my seat-mate, a young lady from Seattle who was visiting a friend over the weekend.
The obligatory "And what takes you to LA?" question lead us into a discussion of my book, The E Word, and the nature of the ego. Which lead us straight into a conversation about--you guessed it--Donald Trump.
"He's got to be the biggest ego on the planet!" she exclaimed. "But don't you think it's a little late for introspection? I mean, sure. It's nice to understand stuff about the ego. But now is the time to take action, not examine our navels!"
For a moment her outburst took me aback. I do have a tendency to live in my head--okay, more than a tendency--an imbalance I'm correcting by doing more physical yoga and consciously connecting deeply to all my emotions and feelings as they come up ... which is a LOT lately because I'm shifting my own sense of personal identity from a 30-year obsession with being a "writer" to becoming a genuine "teacher" who actually gives a shit about helping people more than she cares about her book's Amazon rank, number of Twitter followers and number of books sold.
I'm also moving and going on the road. Which means shoving my stuff into storage (again!!!) and schlepping from locale to locale as doors open and speaking and house-sitting gigs land in my lap ... all while still working as an editor and journalist to pay the bills and still handling much of my own PR. (Although I do have wonderful assistance in the form of my amazing publicist Sara who I silently bless every day, as well as staff at Simon & Schuster.) And, of course, my friends who willingly repost my offerings and lend encouragement (and soon their spare bedrooms!) as needed.
I also quit drinking 6 months ago--which on the surface looks like a crazy thing to do because I could REALLY use the booze right now so very very much. Which is, of course, why I decided to quit. I was far too successful using alcohol to numb myself from my exhaustion and overwhelm, self-medicating on a nightly basis. And far too successful at keeping deeper psychic and emotional probing during this tremendous transition period in my life at bay... (have I mentioned this book has been kicking my ass ever since Spirit sat me down two years ago and commanded "Write!"?)
But back to the plane and my seat mate.
"Is it a ridiculous intellectual exercise teaching people about the ego right now?" I wondered, staring at her blankly. "Am I diddling in my head while Rome burns?"
After a moment's reflection I opened my mouth and said, "I agree that now is the time to take action. But it's also the time for a deep dive into our own nature as human beings.
"If we don't understand who we really are--if we don't use Trump as an example of the destructiveness of the ego run amok and choose to learn what the ego actually is and learn to manage it--we'll be taking action in a knee-jerk unconscious ego to unconscious ego fashion.
"We'll finger-point and name-call. We'll ridicule and disparage. We'll feel superior and insist upon OUR view being supported versus THEIR view. We'll go to war. We'll deepen our divisiveness at the very point in history where it's critical that we learn to bridge differences and find common ground as brothers and sisters under the skin.
"Yes. It is time for action. And part of the action we must take is to learn what small-minded, unwise, frightened aspects of our selves are being mirrored in global politics right now. We must know the thoughts and drives and terrors inside us that have brought us to this conflicted place and learn how to surmount them.
"We must take wise action. We must seek the wisdom of balance and put both head and heart into play. Humbleness and forthrightness. Thought and action. That's playing our "A" game. Anything less and we end up in a Grade C movie drama sniping and shooting at each other over ridiculous things like the name of God and which way to face when and if we pray."
Her eyes widened a bit at my passionate outburst. Then she smiled and nodded. "I get it," she said softly.
Now, if only the rest of the world would care to try.