Claire Perkins the Artful Alchemist

Three Steps Toward Leaving the Boggy Marsh of (Political) Fear

While trapped in the Boggy Marsh of Fear, Alora’s friend Blaze takes three actions that begin to change everything for the two of them:

1. He pays attention to the habits and patterns of the Raven and Moose that have been putting everyone in danger and keeping everyone in fear. He notices what time of day and from which direction they tend to arrive. This helps him to see that the danger isn’t completely random, striking out of the blue with no warning. He realizes they aren’t helpless victims and there are ways to stay safe.
2. He uses this knowledge to help keep Alora safe, too. He doesn’t keep his knowledge to himself. He shares it freely and unselfishly in order to protect those around him. He remains calm while others around him are panicking.
3. He recognizes that it is foolish to stay in the path of constant danger. He is determined to take control of the situation and find a way to leave the Boggy Marsh altogether.

In this current high tension election season, we too can follow Blaze’s lead.

We can pay attention.

We can pay close attention to the words and deeds of those who aspire to be our leaders.

We can be mindful of the information sources we choose to follow and believe, recognizing that there are often agendas and spin attached to those sources. We can follow the news and social media – AND we can do our due diligence in seeking to untangle truth from lies, plain facts from hyperbole, and reason from rumor.

We can educate ourselves about history and historical patterns and understand that this moment in time did not arrive from out of a vacuum, but grew out of tensions that have been at play for the entire history of our nation. And even longer. We can learn more about our own founding documents – what they say and what they mean and what they ask us to aspire to.

We can learn more about how our government is intended to work so that we can make a rational assessment about how well or poorly it is currently working. We can also try to think rationally about the outcome of any changes to how our government works that our aspiring leaders are proposing.

The more aware we become, the less gobsmacked we’ll be when things unfold in exactly the way these patterns predicted. More importantly, we can keep ourselves safe from the worst potential outcomes by taking wise action now. Forewarned is forearmed, as the saying goes.

We can share what we know.

In the Boggy Marsh of Fear, tensions are at a breaking point and civility seems to have flown out the window. Each “tribe” seems to all think, speak, and act the same way. It can feel scary when the way we understand things goes against the grain. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t speak up and speak out. We just don’t have to be jerks when we do.

We can share what we’ve learned and what we know with others, calmly and rationally, and with the intention of keeping them safe and/or making their lives better. This means doing our best to communicate truth, not spreading rumors and conspiracy theories. It means sharing in a way that might be helpful rather than derogatory or belittling. It means being open to disagreement and dialogue, and doing our best to keep the discourse civil.

In this 280-character, text-speak, 20-second sound-bite world, it’s all too easy to toss memes around and to let them speak for us. And while memes can do a good job of capturing attention and distilling an idea, often with humor and equally often with barbed insults, they don’t excuse us from thinking and speaking for ourselves about the things that are most important to us. I’ll admit I’ve been accused of being too wordy, but I feel like the issues we face right now are far too complex to be minimized in this way.

Let’s relearn how to have a meaningful, substantial, and respectful conversation.

We can get the hell out of the Boggy Marsh.

While we need to stay informed, we can recognize when we’re too far down the rabbit hole and dropping into a fear spiral. We can take a break from the 24/7 news cycle, get off social media for a while, go outside and interact with our friends and neighbors. We can take a deep breath, go for a walk, head to the gym, listen and dance to good music, read a book, make some art, watch something funny on TV. Anything healthy that will move us out of the Boggy Marsh, if even for a moment.

Ultimately, we can learn to harness the wind of change and steer our lives and our world toward the future we most desire. But only if we can shift our focus and our energy from fear to hopeful action.

More on that later. For now, here are some Deep Ponderings for your consideration:

1. Where do you go for information? Who do you trust to have the facts? Are you aware of any bias, agenda, or spin there? Are you willing to fact check and/or look at the same topic from the “other” point of view?
2. How much do you know and understand about the way our government works? How much do you understand about U.S. and world history? Are you willing to learn more?
3. Are you willing to speak up for what you think is right in a calm, rational and respectful way? Are you willing to go beyond the meme and engage in deeper civil discourse?
4. What can you do for self-care when you find yourself getting sucked into fear and/or anger over current political situations?

~~~

When I wrote Fallen, The Adventures of a Deep Water Leaf, I wasn’t writing about politics. Or even thinking about politics. But lately the story has been popping back into my brain and feeling very relevant to the political landscape we find ourselves in today. And not in a partisan way, but in a human experience way. I keep being prodded to write my thoughts down – and to share them. This is the fourth in a series of on-going blogs I’m writing in response to that prodding. Here are links to the earlier posts:

1. https://claireperkins.com/stuck-in-the-muck-of-political-fear/
2. https://claireperkins.com/helping-others-as-a-way-out-of-political-fear/
3. https://claireperkins.com/shocking-events-in-the-boggy-marsh-of-fear/

~~~

Want to know more about Alora’s journey of self-discovery and self-empowerment? Order your copy of Fallen today!

Order the Full-Color Hardback Collectors Edition here.

Also available in paperback (with black and white illustrations) and Kindle format.

Shocking Events in the Boggy Marsh of Fear

Shocking things can happen in that Boggy Marsh, where the toxic soup of fear and anger and judgment swirl. It feeds mistrust, suspicion, and paranoia like mother’s milk to any who find themselves stuck there. The morass gives rise to mob mentality, turning friends and neighbors against each other. Rumors run rampant, spreading and growing in whispers and in shouts. There are those who are driven to make decisions and take actions rooted in fear and anger and madness, rather than in reason. Those actions spark more rumors, more fear, more anger, an urge for righteous retaliation. And the cycle spins on and on as the muck grows deeper and more noxious by the day.

And above it all, a wind blows, sometimes softly, sometimes with gale force. It is the wind of change. It is a challenge, but it is also an invitation. Will we stay stuck in this bog and let that wind knock us over, or will we rise above our fear and anger and learn to not only ride the wind, but steer it?

In the story of Fallen, The Adventures of a Deep Water Leaf, our protagonist Alora, with the help and direction of her friend Blaze, chooses the latter. Together, they learn to harness the wind, to leave the Boggy Marsh of Fear, and to chart a course of freedom, discovery, and, ultimately, homecoming. But that is in the fantasy world of Lake Sojourn.

Meanwhile, something shocking has happened right here in our world. The winds of change are roaring. Many of us are being battered by it. Many of us are locked in that cycle of fear, anger, rumors, and mistrust. Can we rise above it? Can we harness the wind? Can we steer this inevitable change in a direction of our choosing? Each of us must make that choice for ourselves.

Perhaps these Deep Ponderings will help:

1. What was/is your first response to this event? Blame and finger-pointing? A desire for revenge and retaliation? Smug self-righteousness? Suspicion and doubt? Fear? Anger?
2. Any of those responses would be quite natural given the swamp we’re all stuck in. But is it possible to step back from the drama? Might there be another way to respond? Are you willing to choose a different kind of response?
3. It is human nature to be curious and to want to know the who/what/when/where/why of things. Are you willing to wait for these answers to emerge from reliable sources or will you allow yourself to fall prey to rumors and conspiracy theories?
4. If you could let this shocking event change the course of things, what better future can you imagine evolving? What choice(s) can you make today to contribute to that better future?

~~~

I write this post the day after the assassination attempt on former President Trump. While I have been outspoken about the man and his policies, I am thankful that he survived and heartbroken for the families of those who were killed or injured. Violence like this is never the answer. I fervently hope that, collectively, we can rise up out of our Boggy Marsh of Fear and work together to steer the winds of change in a direction that will bring more freedom, equality and justice to us all.

~~~

When I wrote Fallen, The Adventures of a Deep Water Leaf, I wasn’t writing about politics. Or even thinking about politics. But lately the story has been popping back into my brain and feeling very relevant to the political landscape we find ourselves in today. And not in a partisan way, but in a human experience way. I keep being prodded to write my thoughts down – and to share them. This is the third in a series of blogs I’m writing in response to that prodding. Here are links to the earlier posts:

1. https://claireperkins.com/stuck-in-the-muck-of-political-fear/
2. https://claireperkins.com/helping-others-as-a-way-out-of-political-fear/

Want to know more about Alora’s journey of self-discovery and self-empowerment? Order your copy of Fallen today!

Order the Full-Color Hardback Collectors Edition here.

Also available in paperback (with black and white illustrations) and Kindle format.