Now, I’m not one for politics, in fact, I avidly avoid it due to the fact that I can never tell whenever some politician is telling the truth. “You can tell a politician is lying if you see his lips move.” As the old joke goes. But tomorrow brings us an… eventful beginning.
Donald Trump is going to be President.
Even typing the words makes me feel something unsettling. As a matter of fact, this will be the very first inauguration that I’ll attempt to bear witness to. It’s strange, politics was just something trivial when I was young, and now, it’s something of grave significance as I can see large changes on the horizon and some of those are not for the better.
In my own personal opinion, I didn’t support Mr. Trump, and when I watched the election polls come in, I was hit with a sort of dull, yet rising, realization: This is it. This is something that I need to bear witness to.
My sister asked me if I think Mr. Trump will last his entire term, as currently there are businesses in his name and some of those bear clauses that he cannot own a business as he is a government official, of sorts. I felt divided. Half of me thinks by circumstance and, I’d almost dare to say, luck, he does indeed last all four of his years, and the other half of me thinks that he simply won’t. Either in some scandal worthy of his reputation, or in some unforeseen loophole that no one could ever see, he’ll be impeached and removed from office.
I remember reading in the Book of the Five Rings, that a Samurai must always be aware of what’s happening in the world around him, and this is what I believe I must do, especially with such controversy and scandal and raised emotions in everyone all around me. I can’t let myself get absorbed into all this, but I need to be able to see it. I have to see it. I have to know what’s going on now. I can’t simply turn my head away, just because I don’t like politics.
When the world is in such a state, I can no longer turn a blind eye to what is in front of me. And although it’ll be difficult to navigate through the emotions and the biased opinions of both sides, I still have to try to understand, to try to listen to what people are really saying, not what I think they’re saying. And most of all, I have to pay attention to what they do. Because actions always define who we are, and I have to constantly look for the point where words fail and actions are the language with which we communicate.
Tomorrow is going to be an eventful day, indeed. I pray… for all of us… even for Mr. Trump…
Although I should probably mention that my currently reading George Orwell’s 1984 has absolutely no influence on me… probably…
Red's Journey 