Obama Reckons with a Trump Presidency

How did he speak with his two daughters about the election results, about the post-election reports of racial incidents? “What I say to them is that people are complicated,” Obama told me. “Societies and cultures are really complicated. . . . This is not mathematics; this is biology and chemistry. These are living organisms, and… Continue reading Obama Reckons with a Trump Presidency

Empathy isn’t a favor I owe white Trump voters. It has to go both ways.

Had Hillary Clinton won, many of us would have moved on as if all was right with the world, but the world is very wrong, and the impact of that wrongness is on display for all to see. This is an opportunity to dig deeper into our imaginations and collective intelligence for solutions, to make… Continue reading Empathy isn’t a favor I owe white Trump voters. It has to go both ways.

Empathy isn’t a favor I owe white Trump voters. It has to go both ways.

The degree to which white, liberal, urban America relied on polling reports and FiveThirtyEight and the Upshot to tell them everything was going to be all right is incredible. I derived confidence from those predictions as well. We all stuck to those websites like a driver sticks to incorrect Waze GPS directions. Instead of driving,… Continue reading Empathy isn’t a favor I owe white Trump voters. It has to go both ways.

Empathy isn’t a favor I owe white Trump voters. It has to go both ways.

And then we act surprised when a master appears on the scene and shows us how to put all these pieces together in a brilliant coalition. The man who got into a Twitter fight with a former Miss Universe read the public better than any data analytics team. He hacked the media business model’s addiction… Continue reading Empathy isn’t a favor I owe white Trump voters. It has to go both ways.

A Buddhist monk explains mindfulness for times of conflict

Community practice is crucial at this time. It’s crucial not to be alone in front of the computer, reading media. That makes the world dark for you. Find flesh. There are still wonderful things happening. A Buddhist monk explains mindfulness for times of conflict

A Buddhist monk explains mindfulness for times of conflict

Trump is not an alien who came from another planet. We produced Trump, so we are co-responsible. Our culture, our society, made him. We love to pick somebody and make them the object. But it’s deeper than that. We have to see him inside of us. A Buddhist monk explains mindfulness for times of conflict