This presidential election season has been toxic. Candidates and the media have nearly drowned us in dark, dirty waters. When this seemed beyond our human capacity to tolerate, social media really revved up, and somehow the barrage of ugliness seemed even worse coming from everyday people.

Perfectly sane and smart folks began going round the bend, posting horrid photos and remarks said by and about the candidates. The hunger for gotcha moments is frightening.

We’ve become stone-throwers and barbarians who cheer on the lions in the arena — attack and kill!  We didn’t even realize this was happening. It must have been contagious. The poisonous fumes seeped into our minds, our bodies, and our souls like thieves in the dark of night.

Let’s recapture who we were before all this madness began. Of course, first, we must vote —with our heads and a grasp of the real issues at stake. It is a unique privilege.  Then we must let go and not let the foulness of this political season change our innate goodness and joy of being alive.  Let’s move on to nobler things.

Why not:

• Limit time watching newscasts and social media—they pollute

 

• Go for a walk and take some pictures of Mother Nature’s art with a cell phone

 

• Write a thank you note to a grandparent, parent, friend, or colleague

 

• Celebrate the season and being alive to enjoy it with a pumpkin or some leaves

 

• Go to a church, a synagogue, a mosque or an art museum and sit there quietly for a while absorbing the stillness which can calm the mindless chatter

 

• Take your dog for a walk or volunteer to be a dog walker at the local animal shelter—exercise and unconditional love— a great combination

 

• Make a list of things for which you are grateful

 

• Rake leaves or sweep the walk for new parents or a senior citizen on your block

 

• Bake a pie— use fresh or frozen pie crusts, it doesn’t matter, then pass out pieces of pie and talk recipes not politics

 

• Listen to John Rutter’s Look at the World  on YouTube before you go to bed. You will sleep like a baby with sweet dreams instead of images of political fist pounding and strident insults making you toss and turn all night 

 

Breathe out hatred, breathe in love

Breathe out ugliness, breathe in beauty

Breathe out me, breathe in you

 

Ah— that’s better. It’s working. I’m me again.