Yes, Virginia, It’s All Political
A conversation with my niece
A week after the election, during a car ride chat, I asked my niece how she and her friends were doing. She said most people in her school weren’t happy with the outcome and asked me some questions about what might happen next. She especially wanted to know if Kamala would run again.
After my best attempt at answering her, I somehow ended with a generic “Everything’s political.”
“Well, not everything’s political,” she responded. “Everything can’t be political.”
I thought for a minute. “I’m sure there are some things that are not political, but I can’t think of any.”
She looked out the window. “That leaf isn’t political.”
I countered. “Depending on how you look at it, that leaf could be political in a lot of ways. A city’s zoning laws or a person’s political views might influence the kind of trees they have in their yard—big or small, natives or exotics—or if they have any at all. Political beliefs could affect what they do with a leaf when it falls to the ground. Do they leave it there to decompose and enrich the soil, or do they rake it up and keep their lawn clean and tidy? The time of year that leaf sprouts and changes colors has to do with climate, and how the climate is changing is very political. How people view climate change is political. Donald Trump once claimed that forest fires are caused by not raking leaves in the forest, instead of climate change.”
We talked more about what makes a thing political the rest of the ride home. We discussed what it means when a teacher says they can’t talk about politics at school. And about how politics crossover with beliefs about what the world is like, about how we learn, and about who we are.
My niece is in middle school, and though she hasn’t thrown herself into activism, she always has a keen ear tuned to what is going on in the world around her and to what the adults in her life are talking about. She asks insightful questions and soaks in a lot.
I wonder what she is taking away from this year’s election and our response to it.
I’ve thought about our car conversation since, and I think I should have told her that my love for her, her family’s love for her are beyond politics. That is true. I wasn’t aunting at my best with my response in that moment.
What I hope she took away from what I did say, is that politics aren’t scary or over her head or beyond her years. That she is powerful in how she lives her life and treats others every day. That what she knows and believes is important, and that no one party or president can diminish any of that.
I hope she thinks about how there is the possibility to look out the window and see the leaves in the trees as a part of the scenery that is maybe pretty or interesting, but not really meaningful on any deeper level. I hope she finds peace in knowing that life can be that simple.
But I also wish for her that she sees beauty in understanding the connectedness of our lives with other people and things. She has the ability to see something that seems arbitrary or mundane and know that it can be understood more profoundly from different angles, and changed, if needed. She does not have to accept the world as it is.
I hope one day she can look out a window at a leaf growing from a sprout coming up from between two slabs of concrete and wonder at its rebellion, cheering on a wild world that can challenge and defy the politics that would try and tame it.
I want the same for all of us. Wishing you lots of inspirational views this holiday season.
With love and hope for the future,
Stephanie
How are you talking to the young people in your life right now? What would you want them to take away from this political season?
Fine conversation! To make sense of leadership qualities, a person needs to distinguish between right and wrong, or between constructive and destructive tendencies. One could say that lying about the realities that most affect people's lives constitutes the most extreme form of evil.
That is a magnificent conversation, the depth and artistry of it expands ideas into ideals. You're both lucky to have each other. You're a "great" aunt! It is interesting for me to think of the history of political thought tracing back to "Plato's Republic," or Aristotle's "Politics." The conversation reminded me of an article I wrote at least a decade ago for a spiritual group I've been involved with called the Ageless Wisdom. The title was "The Spirituality of Politics." This had me thinking more about your conversation and ideas on how politics has been polluted by "men" who are wanting to control the idea of politics in order to turn people away from it. I hear too often "I hate politics." I hope your conversation with your young niece can begin to transform that old idea and bring in a new vision of what politics can become.