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David McElroy

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Politicians, empires come and go; only love and nature will endure

By David McElroy · November 6, 2016

sunset-will-continue

Nature doesn’t care who wins the U.S. presidential election Tuesday.

No matter who wins, the sun will rise in the east Wednesday morning. It will sink gloriously to the west that evening.

The earth will keep spinning. Trees will keep growing. Leaves will keep changing in the autumn and returning in the spring. Torrents of water will keep falling from the sky and forming great rivers to rush toward the sea.

Animals will keep reproducing and living the lives they’re designed for. They’ll keep growing and changing and evolving. They’ll continue to roam the earth, sometimes competing and sometimes cooperating.

Humanity will continue, too. The billions of people on this planet are the descendants of people who lived through far worse than what most of us will ever face — or can even imagine. The worst scenarios we can conceive would have been unimaginable fantasies of luxury to them.

Two people are competing Tuesday for a terrifying degree of control over this earth. They are both horribly flawed human beings — far worse than even the average among us. You can make arguments, if you’d like, about which of these terrible people is worse for the immediate future and why.

But it doesn’t matter.

First, there is absolutely nothing you can do about it. One or the other of them will win and your thoughts, emotions and actions will not change anything about that.

Second, each is competing for power which is immoral for any human being to hold over another. Neither outcome is more moral than the other. No human has the right to control others against their will. Having a majority of people agree to violate the rights of any minority doesn’t somehow make such violations any more moral. We are all losers of every election, because most of us are buying into the monstrous notion that it is moral and acceptable for someone — anyone — to have this power if we happen to agree with him or her.

Third, the things that will determine your future — your love, your happiness, your fulfillment, your comfort — are mostly decided by the things you do with your own life, not by the actions of any politician.

What I’m saying goes against everything you’ve been taught. You’ve been told — at almost every election — that “this is the most important election of our lifetime.” You’ve been taught to worship a system of state power which is essentially a secular religion. You have been taught that every decent and responsible person must choose a side in an election in order to “support our democracy.” You’ve been taught there’s nothing more important than who holds power in the White House.

All of those things are lies.

The world has survived the birth and death of countless empires, most of which we don’t even remember today. Even the ones we do remember and celebrate are historical oddities, not things which matter to our daily lives. The Roman Empire — which started as the Roman Republic, remember — ruled most of the known world for far longer than the United States or other modern regimes have existed. None of the people living under those various emperors believed their empire would wither away. They believed their empire was unique — that it would always survive.

The people who lived in those places were just as varied as we are today. Some of them were great people. Some of them were evil. Most were varying shades in between. Same as today. Every single one of them is dead, no matter what he or she did to influence the direction of any government of that day.

The thing that mattered most while they lived is whether they were productive and how they related to the people around them — how they worked and how they loved. Same as today.

My future is determined by the things I do. I can’t change what politicians decide to steal from me. I can’t change the wars that people start because they are greedy or hateful or insane. As Pat Terry once wrote in the words of a song, “Nothing I say’s gonna change the way of this world.”

Nature is going to outlive all of us. Even if politicians are stupid enough to destroy humanity entirely before we can find a way to live on other planets, nature will still be here and it would recover without batting a metaphorical eye.

Mostly, though, love endures. In the here and now, the most important things I can do involve loving others and finding emotionally healthy love in return. Creating love and life somehow connects us to the Spirit I know as God. (You can argue about the nature and theology of God, but that’s not the point here.)

The God I know is the source of all love. He is the source of all life. When we love and create, we are most like Him — and I have faith that the love we experience and express somehow lasts far beyond the point when our feeble bodies return to dust.

If you have any sense of perspective — historical, spiritual, rational, any kind — you will begin to sense how little any election matters.

No matter what happens, the earth will keep spinning. The sun will keep rising and setting. Life will keep evolving.

And around the world, people just like you and me will continue living our lives, struggling to be better people, striving to achieve more and desperately seeking to be loved.

Nature endures. You and I will endure, too.

No matter what happens, you and I will keep walking on toward the future we’re personally creating for ourselves — through what we create and how we choose to love.

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I apparently have way too much time on my hands. I I apparently have way too much time on my hands. I’ll let you know if any of the toy companies agree to pick this up as a featured toy for the upcoming Christmas season. Thanks, ChatGPT. 😺
Thunderstorms are just starting here, so I stopped Thunderstorms are just starting here, so I stopped on the way home — about a mile from my house — for some dramatic lightning photos. #nature #naturephotography #sky #lightning #night #thunderstorms #birmingham #alabama
This was the Friday evening sunset near my house a This was the Friday evening sunset near my house about half an hour ago. #nature #naturephotography #sky #colorful #clouds #sunset #birmingham #alabama
Lucy and I are taking her last walk of the day and Lucy and I are taking her last walk of the day and it’s just starting to rain lightly. The misting rain and low-lying fog that diffused the light from nearby street lamps give the night a magical feeling.
It seems as though the trees turned bare of their It seems as though the trees turned bare of their leaves almost overnight when I wasn’t paying attention. This is part of the neighborhood route that Lucy and I walk every night. #nature #naturephotography #sky #nightsky #iphone #birmingham #alabama
I love the way the sky looks over our heads tonigh I love the way the sky looks over our heads tonight as Lucy patrols the neighborhood for her final rounds of the day. #nature #naturephotography #sky #nightsky #clouds #iphone #birmingham #alabama
I’m recording video for a YouTube project late F I’m recording video for a YouTube project late Friday night and I just started thinking about how much different things in the studio look to me as compared to what video viewers see. The reality is that my home studio is just a room at my house that’s stuffed with lights and equipment (first shot), but when you look at what’s on the screen (second shot) you might assume I’m in a real studio somewhere. The only problem is that there are train tracks close to my house, so I have to shut down production whenever Norfolk Southern decides to send a freight train through my neighborhood. It’s amazing what is possible today that would have been impossible not that long ago.
The sky was beautiful above me as I walked out of The sky was beautiful above me as I walked out of Walmart just a few minutes ago. #nature #naturephotography #sky #colorful #clouds #sunset #birmingham #alabama
It’s only 9:30 p.m. and I’m finally almost hom It’s only 9:30 p.m. and I’m finally almost home, but it feels more like midnight. I showed houses tonight and then had to deal with some tenant problems in a couple of rental houses. I think it feels so late simply because it’s starting to get dark earlier and I’m not accustomed to it yet. On a night such as this one — when I feel really tired — I feel as though my clothes and face are a work uniform. And I’m ready to take the uniform off and go off-duty for the night.
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Oliver relaxes on my desk late Sunday afternoon wh Oliver relaxes on my desk late Sunday afternoon while I write at my desk. #cat #cats #catstagram #catsofinstagram #cute #cutecat #pets #petstagram #petsofinstagram #instacat #ilovecats #birmingham #alabama
Late Sunday afternoon, Sam is watching a neighbor Late Sunday afternoon, Sam is watching a neighbor cut his grass, which is apparently quite suspicious in his eyes. #cat #cats #catstagram #catsofinstagram #cute #cutecat #blackcat #blackcats #pets #petstagram #petsofinstagram #instacat #ilovecats #birmingham #alabama
Lucy’s nightly appearance on her Neighborhood Wa Lucy’s nightly appearance on her Neighborhood Watch patrols have been enough to keep the area safe from criminals and other ne’er-do-wells for the 10 years we’ve lived here, so the bad folks are clearly terrified of her. #dog #dogs #dogstagram #dogsofinstagram #cute #cutedog #pets #petstagram #petsofinstagram #instadog #ilovedogs #birmingham #alabama
After a couple of days of rain — including serio After a couple of days of rain — including serious thunderstorms this morning — Oliver is enjoying some sunshine in an office window Saturday evening. #cat #cats #catstagram #catsofinstagram #cute #cutecat #pets #petstagram #petsofinstagram #instacat #ilovecats #birmingham #alabama
Alex might be halfway to sleep for the night, but Alex might be halfway to sleep for the night, but he still likes attention enough to purr about it. #cat #cats #catstagram #catsofinstagram #cute #cutecat #pets #petstagram #petsofinstagram #tabby #tabbycat #instacat #ilovecats #birmingham #alabama #caturdayeve
I just came home to change clothes and found Olive I just came home to change clothes and found Oliver camped out on my desk watching the neighborhood. He was too focused on whatever he’s been watching to pay much attention to me this evening. #cat #cats #catstagram #catsofinstagram #cute #cutecat #pets #petstagram #petsofinstagram #instacat #ilovecats #birmingham #alabama #caturdayeve
As he hangs off the corner of my desk to survey th As he hangs off the corner of my desk to survey the office, it’s pretty clear just how productive a day Alex is having. His work is exhausting and he needs a weekend to recover. #cat #cats #catstagram #catsofinstagram #cute #cutecat #pets #petstagram #petsofinstagram #tabby #tabbycat #instacat #ilovecats #birmingham #alabama
Alex hid underneath a t-shirt on the bed for a few Alex hid underneath a t-shirt on the bed for a few minutes — and Oliver wasn’t quite sure what to think about the situation until his tabby brother emerged. #cat #cats #catstagram #catsofinstagram #cute #cutecat #pets #petstagram #petsofinstagram #instacat #ilovecats #birmingham #alabama
A few minutes ago, I couldn’t find Sam anywhere. A few minutes ago, I couldn’t find Sam anywhere. Alex and Oliver were both in the bedroom, but they didn’t act as though anything was abnormal. I was starting to panic after looking for about 10 minutes when I finally saw two little eyes looking up at me from a pile of black clothes. The pile was roughly at waist level for me, so that meant when I glanced at the pile, I saw nothing but a big pile of black stuff. It wasn’t until I saw his eyes that I realized that Sam was part of that black “stuff.” #cat #cats #catstagram #catsofinstagram #cute #cutecat #blackcat #blackcats #pets #petstagram #petsofinstagram #instacat #ilovecats #birmingham #alabama
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For four years, Donald Trump’s supporters screamed that everything that went wrong was the fault of Joe Biden. They were sometimes right and they were sometimes delusional. (Anybody who knows me understands that I can’t stand Biden any more than I can stand Trump, just for different reasons.) But for two months, Trump has rampaged through U.S. political life — vandalizing pretty much everything in sight — and the vast majority of his supporters are silent at best. Many watch as he blows up the world economy and they make excuses for him. They’re in absolute denial, even about things that Trump is doing very intentionally. Anybody who understands economics and history knows that tariffs are a terrible idea from a pragmatic point of view. Anybody who values individual freedom knows that tariffs are massive taxes on individuals — and they’re a tool of political control over the ability of people to trade freely. Trump is the antithesis of everything which political conservatives stood for just a few years ago. It’s far past time for people who claim to be conservatives to reclaim the principles and values which they used to claim — and stop this mad man before he can accelerate the day when we experience economic and social collapse. Open your eyes to reality and reject this lying narcissist.

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