Category Archives: politics

It Ain’t Easy

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Okay. Here’s my current struggle: I’m trying to keep my wall kind and joyful; I’m also trying to be an ally to those in need of allies right now; I’m trying to nurture the good in people and trying not to feed what’s bad (and this includes myself); I’m trying to trust in Good – trying to trust that my fellow humans have the wisdom and courage to see and do what’s right and decent even when the odds are against them. And when I bring all of this to my wall it looks like a hodgpodge patchwork of swans and smiling pups, political insanity and heroism, frustration, anger, Christopher Walken and Borowitz. It’s a little messy right now.

I apologize. I’m trying to bring order out of chaos here and it ain’t easy.

If nothing else, please know this: I love you. I honor the good in you. The world needs all the good you have to bring to it right now.

Note to a Friend

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Note to a friend:

I know that God loves you no less than She loves me. I know that God loves all of Her children without limit. And I trust that She is continually leading and guiding each of us down our own paths in life, with our own lessons waiting for us – and it’s not my business to decide how you should think or feel or be. But it IS my business to follow God’s direction in my own life – and that includes taking a stand for what I know is honest and right, and confronting evil when I see it.

In love, Karen

Staying Sane, While Staying Informed (Revisited)

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I originally published this post in 2012, but I found myself revisiting it this morning.

…those who discern Christian Science will hold crime in check. They will aid in the ejection of error. They will maintain law and order, and cheerfully await the certainty of ultimate perfection. – Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health, p. 97

***

A friend posted a great cartoon (by David Sippress) on Facebook the other day. It shows a man and woman walking down the street, and the woman is saying: “My desire to be well-informed is currently at odds with my desire to remain sane.”

I can really relate to this cartoon.

The desire to be a responsible and contributing citizen means that I want to be aware of, and informed about, the challenges my nation faces. But how does one stay informed about these challenges, without feeling overwhelmed by them? Sometimes the fear and hate that seem to permeate our atmosphere can seem impossible to overcome, and I find myself getting pulled inexorably into the brouhaha. I see inequity and unfairness, hypocrisy and bigotry, and it makes me really angry. And the angrier I get the more real and powerful the inequity and bigotry seem to me, and the less powerful I feel in being able to make anything better.

In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy writes: “We may well be astonished at sin, sickness, and death. We may well be perplexed at human fear; and still more astounded at hatred, which lifts its hydra head, showing its horns in the many inventions of evil. But why should we stand aghast at nothingness?” (p. 563)

I can imagine someone reading this quote by Mary Baker Eddy and shaking his head, wondering how anyone can write off all the hate and fear as “nothing.” And I can imagine someone reading this quote and comparing Christian Scientists to those three monkeys who “see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil.” But that’s not what Christian Science is about at all.

Eddy writes: “Expose and denounce the claims of evil and disease in all their forms, but realize no reality in them. A sinner is not reformed merely by assuring him that he cannot be a sinner because there is no sin. To put down the claim of sin, you must detect it, remove the mask, point out the illusion, and thus get the victory over sin and so prove its unreality.” (Science and Health, p. 447.)

Note that when Mary Baker Eddy writes about exposing evil and removing its mask, nowhere does she say we do this in a spirit of anger.  In fact, earlier in Science and Health, she writes, “The way to extract error from mortal mind is to pour in truth through flood-tides of Love.” (Science and Health, p. 201.)

I believe our purpose here is to love – love is what gives meaning to life. And so it doesn’t really make any sense for me to be angry about anger, or to be unkind in the name of kindness, or to feel hate about those who hate – because anger, hate, and unkindness defeat the whole purpose of it all.

I really like the thoughts Kathi Petersen, a spiritually-minded friend from Nova Scotia, sent me earlier this week: “Is there something wrong with wanting to concentrate your mind and energy on positive things? Are we shirking our responsibilities somehow, not being actively embroiled with the downward tendency of our society? Does it somehow help the planet if we spend our days alarmed and shouting about what is going on? I feel so much that the opposite is true … That what the world needs most is people who can spread some Joy … Maybe every village needs its Joy-spreaders, and we should be given some kind of stipend to concentrate on good and happy things …”

Isn’t that a wonderful idea?!

I want to be one of the Joy-spreaders. I want to completely overpower the feelings of gloom and doom, of hopelessness and anger and fear and hate, with joy and good cheer and love.

I started off this blog with a quote by Mary Baker Eddy. The one word that stands out to me, as I reread it, is the word cheerfully.  She tells us that Christian Scientists will “aid in the ejection of error” and “cheerfully await the certainty of ultimate perfection.” Isn’t it great that we don’t need to give up our joy to overcome evil? In fact, maybe the only way we can overcome evil is with joy and love.

***

At all times and under all circumstances, overcome evil with good. – Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health, p. 571.

The good you do and embody gives you the only power obtainable. – Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health, p. 192.

Look for the Good in Others. Look for the Good in Yourself, Too.

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Note to self: Be patient with others, and with yourself, too. We are living in a society where people will assume the worst of others, and attribute the worst intentions to each other. People are on the defensive and in pain – shattered from years of being bullied and shamed and denigrated. Be patient. Be kind. Look for the good in others. Look for the good in yourself, too.

We’re all doing the best we can.
-Karen Molenaar Terrell

Things I Learned on the Amazon Discussion Forums

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Things I learned on the Amazon Discussion Forums (the forums were on Amazon from 2007 to 2017 and I was involved with the forums from 2007 to about 2011):

1) Read and reread and edit. You don’t have to shoot from the hip. The beauty of written discourse is that you have time to think about what you want to say in your responses to others. Don’t be afraid to use the delete button.

2) You actually don’t have to respond at all. Just because someone has tagged you in a comment or a post doesn’t mean you have to invest time and energy in responding. You get to choose how you want to spend your time.

3) If you’re going to respond to someone, take the time to actually read their comment/post and try to see their perspective. See if there’s something you can learn from them.

4) Don’t be afraid to apologize if someone catches you in a mistake. Humility is a beautiful thing.

5) When possible, bring humor into the discussion, and especially don’t be afraid to laugh at your own foibles and flaws. We all have them.

6) If you find yourself launching a personal attack on someone – delete, delete, delete. Personal insults never ever ever solve anything or make anything better.

7) If you see someone being bullied, step up and come to their defense.

8 ) Do not take offense. Do not get all fluffed-up and indignant if someone disagrees with you or appears to be criticizing your beliefs. Don’t take any of that personally. People will disagree with you sometimes, and it’s okay.

9) Don’t expect everyone to have the same beliefs as you, and don’t think that they’re “stupid” if they don’t. There are as many perspectives as there are people on the planet.

10) Be kind.

Going Minimalist

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Going minimal-
ist. My only task in this
moment is to breathe.
-Karen Molenaar Terrell

Let Every Hour Be Your Finest Hour

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My dear Humoristians –

Go out there and live this day like this is the last day you have to live. Show kindness with wild abandon. Look for every opportunity to express Love. Share laughter with people in desperate need of a good laugh. Lift hearts. Bring joy. Give hope. Let every hour be your finest hour. Treasure every moment you’ve been given.

Go out there and work your magic!

Karen

A Prayer for Today

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Truth is the only power and presence – the Creator of all that is real. Love fills all space, reaching to infinity. Life is infinite and universal and eternal. All that Love creates expresses Love. All that Life creates manifests infinite Life. All that Truth creates is the reflection of Truth. All that is good comes from God, and God is all. All is good.

We are the image and likeness of Love; the reflection of Truth; the manifestation of Life; the children of the one Mind. We are the expressions of Good, God.

The belief that we can feel fear, anger, hate, or confusion is a lie for we are made by divine Mind and all we can feel is what divine Mind feels. There isn’t the teensiest, tiniest part of us that can feel fear or anger or hate because we are made wholly in the image and likeness of divine Mind. The belief that we have our own little mortal mind is a lie. Mortal mind is no part of our real identities as God’s children. Fear is no part of us. Hate is no part of us. We were made by Love and for Love, and anything that’s not of Love is a lie and has nothing to do with us.

God – Life, Truth, Love – governs the universe in perfect, indestructible harmony. God governs Her creation with the unfailing, unceasing, irrepressible, unstoppable, insurmountable power of Love. The belief that God’s government can be usurped is a lie for nothing can usurp Love’s governing of Her own creation. Nothing has the power to usurp Truth’s government.

Feel the presence and power of Love enfolding you in Her loving embrace. You are safe. You are loved. You are Her precious child, never separated from all that is good.
-Karen Molenaar Terrell

Don’t Tell Me You Don’t Like Him, But You “Like His Policies”

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The despicable, hateful, fear-inducing, violence-inciting things he says that target my friends in the LGBTQ community and the Haitian and Puerto Rican immigrant communities, and those who’ve served and died in the military, tell me everything I need to know about his “policies”

No, I was not better off under his presidency. And the economy is only going to get worse if he’s elected and his plans for the economy are implemented – his tariffs would bring up the cost of groceries and deporting millions of farm workers would, too.

I don’t want to hear even one more person say they don’t like him, but they like his policies. His policies are all based on hate and greed.

“Us Versus Them”: The Language of Haters

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I’ve been debating with myself if I should put this out there – most of us have probably already voted by now, and I’m pretty sure nothing I write here is going to make any difference anyway. But… on the flip side, I think I’d have a hard time living with myself if I didn’t say something. So. Yeah. Here goes.

I’m pretty sure the swing states are getting bombarded with a lot of political ads that never reach us here in Washington State. But every now and then – usually when we’re watching some nationally-televised sports show – one will pop up. And there’s this one I’ve seen a couple of times now that triggers something in me every time – and I don’t think I’m triggered in the way the politician who sponsored the ad expects me to be triggered.

This ad shows this tall, masculine-looking athlete playing sports on a women’s team. And then the narrator says this: “Kamala’s for they/them. President Trump is for you.”

And that, right there, is just so…. just writing this I’m finding myself triggered again. “Us versus them.” This is the language of haters. This is the language that politicians use to divide us, and to incite violence in us. This is the language politicians use to bring the fearful and ignorant to their flag. This is bigotry, pure and simple. And it scares me for the safety of my LGBTQ friends.

I’m a Boomer AND a former English teacher who, in the olden days, spent time correcting my students’ improper use of the words “they” and “them” – “they” is the plural I’d tell my students and “her” is the singular. I grew up in a generation of people in which society was divided into male and female – and, being a heterosexual female who’s always felt female-ish, I never really thought too much beyond society’s binary system for the sexes. I had friends and acquaintances in the olden days who I knew were gay, but it was never a big deal to me who other people were attracted to and it never occurred to me that I should hate anyone or judge them because of their sexual orientation.

Now, as time has gone on and my circle of friendships has grown, I also have had the opportunity to develop friendships with several transgender people – in the case of my friends, they were assigned the label of “female” when they were born, but have never FELT female, and self-identify as male. And, in recent years, I have witnessed my friends – good, caring, kind, brave people – become more urgent in their cries for help as they’re bullied, threatened, legislated against, and hated on.

And I’m scared for their safety.

So when I see that poltical ad from the Trump campaign, targeting transgender people, I’m triggered. Feeding the fear and hate – feeding the “feargnorance” in others – is shameful and low. It’s despicable. That ad validates, for me, that I voted for the right person by NOT voting for Trump.

Shouldn’t our president be for ALL of us?

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one and the same in Christ Jesus.“
– Galatians 3:28