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Representative Hayes is Not Okay
And neither is America… yet
“Problems that remain persistently insoluble should always be suspected as questions asked in the wrong way.”
― Alan Wilson Watts, The Book on the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are
I write this response to Rep. Jahana Hayes’ recent article, but it isn’t meant exclusively for her. There are millions of my fellow Americans who feel exactly like she does, and we need to talk about it. But first, take in her words.
Expressing one’s true, authentic feelings is what real leadership looks like. There’s tremendous power in it.
It is not what corporate sponsorship looks like, however. One of our biggest problems in America is that we have badly confused those two distinct (and rarely overlapping) things. Lobbying is not the same as leadership. But that’s a story for another time.
Right now, the important thing to start with is that yes, your feelings are valid, Representative Hayes. Your feelings are valid, dear readers. But they are not fixed.
We feel differently from one moment to the next even with regard to the same person or event. A fancy new car can represent the fulfillment of our dreams and the ultimate expression of success at one point in time. Then as time passes, that same trophy can evolve into a mobile monument of buyer’s remorse. This is true even if the physical condition of the vehicle doesn’t change.
Words too are a kind of vehicle. Their power is not in the sound or the arrangement of letters. It is in the meaning these words carry within them.
Here’s the secret: you as the thinker of thoughts get to decide that meaning.
Yes, I realize very clearly the power of authorship, of language, of social construction. I understand all of that. But it is in the mind of the receiver that reality is ultimately processed, envisioned, and projected.
