In this current climate of politicized disasters and a new administration how do you take care of yourself? How do you show up? Where does kindness fit?
Luke: It's not cold, but it's a little chilly. And it's getting ready to rain. I really hope we get the rain. But not enough rain to cause mudslides for those who have already endured so much.
Danforth: What does it mean to live our lives from a more conscious place? In light of what's happening in our world today, the idea of right and wrong. He says anger is a dangerous, dangerous drug for him. Danforth: Right if somebody comes at me from a place of awareness.
And I pray and there's this great prayer in the 12 step community. The set aside prayer goes like this. God, please help me set aside everything I think I know about Democrats, about Republicans, about politics. That's my take on conscious living in politics.
All right, well, you know, Happy Saturday, Cadre community. I was gonna say it's a little chilly here, but, you know, that's a very relative. That's a very relative statement because I'm in Los Angeles and it's, it's not chilly. I have shorts on and it is. Let's just, let's just say I know a lot of folks in Minnesota and I know Cadre is. That's right, Luke's coming in from Minnesota. So if I say it's chilly here, you know, like, I, I try to make sure all my friends say like, I'm like, no, it's, it's not cold here.
Please don't say it's cold. I know what cold is. I lived in Minnesota for 18 years. It's not cold, but it's a little chilly. And it's getting ready to rain. And I hope we get the rain. I really hope we get the rain. But like so many things in life, I want enough rain to kill the fires, but not enough rain to cause mudslides for those who have already endured so much. So today is week four. It's when we talk about conscious living, right? Week one, conscious masculinity. Week two, conscious fatherhood.
Week three, conscious coupling. And week four, conscious living. Like, just this idea of, like, what does it mean to live our lives from a more conscious place? And I couldn't think of a better topic in light of what's happening in our world today than the idea of right and wrong. And it's not like right and wrong and like, you know, good or bad or like, you know that, but like, who's right and who's wrong? We have devolved into such an incredible society of right and wrong. And the challenge that I find.
Okay, so for first, let me say I am a recovering self righteous liberal, something armchair, armchair radical is what we used to call it, right? People who pontificated and talked about all kinds of stuff and did nothing. So that was my kind of. I don't know, that was my experience for a long time. And I was very reactive long into my sobriety, right? You know, very, very reactive. If somebody, you know, I remember somebody insulted a band of mine, right, One of my favorite bands, and I just was like.
It was like they were insulting me, right? So as a friend of mine, Dr. Alan Berger, talks about, if you are not differentiated. If you are not a differentiated human being, if you are. If what you like and what you don't like and what you think and what you don't think is somehow connected to you and your value and who you are as a person, then it's very easy to be emotional. Now, I will say very transparently, I did not. This is not the administration that I voted for that's currently in office.
Okay? Do I think the people that support this current administration are idiots? I do not. Do I think they are evil? I do not. Do I think our current president is evil? I do not. Now, there are some people who are like, but, Dan, if you're not angry, if you're not p***** off, then you're not paying attention, right? There's even a sticker that says the same thing. And so I've really kind of had to ask myself, well, like, what. What are people really asking me to do? So for one, for me, like, what I'm really clear about is anger is a dangerous, dangerous drug for me.
As dangerous, if not more dangerous than alcohol and other drugs, for sure. The damage it's caused in my life, I wouldn't. I wouldn't wish upon anybody. And that's a lot of that was sober. Okay? So I have that experience. So I know, for me, it's not worth it. People are trying to suggest I need to be angry and that somehow my lack of anger is apathy. I, you know, don't confuse my calmness with ignorance or don't confuse my calmness with not paying attention. I'm. I'm paying attention, but I'm also not paying attention from a place that says, these people are bad.
They can't do anything right. They won't do anything right, and I'm right, and they're wrong. I'm good and they're bad. My experience in this attempt to live more consciously is every time I find myself in that situation, I suffer. And then there's no opportunity, right? As soon as I've decided that somebody's wrong, there's no opportunity for connection. There's no opportunity for learning. There's no opportunity, you know, for seeing, for empathy. And that's. That's the challenge. Like how. And now there are other people who say, but they don't care.
They don't care about your. Your. Your feelings, your empathy, your values, what you care about. They're going to take away your rights, and they're going to take away everything you care about. You need to stand up. You need to fight for this. I'm like, okay, well, I don't know when to fight and when not to fight. And I don't mean that from like, oh, God, what do I do? I don't fight? No, I don't know when to fight and when not to fight. And so I will seek the counsel of people wiser than myself, more detached and objective to help me determine when or if that is necessary.
In the meantime. In the meantime, I have the experience of paying attention, of awareness. And that's what I've been taught is about the conscious life is awareness. Right. So if somebody comes at me from one side and is coming from a place of they're right, I'm wrong, or were right and they're wrong, meaning like they are trying to get me to join with them and then the other people are wrong. I know that's already the wrong path for me. Now, again, this current administration, that is not my choice.
Right. Did I share some. Did I get into a conversation with another couple and my wife last night where we were sharing some things? Yeah. Because some decisions have been made in this week alone that I personally don't understand and I don't agree with. Not agreeing with somebody is not the same as determining that they're evil or wrong or don't deserve to live. Now, check in with me in a year. I don't know. I don't know what's going to happen. I mean, now I am by no means am I comparing the current administration to the Hitler regime.
I'm not. I know some people do. But you know, if this were that, you know, there comes a time where people have to speak up and there comes a time when people have to say, but this is what I believe and this is what I believe is right. And so I'm less. I was on a board meeting with some organization that I'm part of and I said to me, it's not about trying to quiet or shut down the voice of other people. It's about choosing how to use my own and how loud I need to be. And I think that's the part of it.
So I try not to get stuck in the black and white of right and wrong. It seems like it's a bit of a black hole, frankly, and too easily to get stuck in this idea. And I pray and there's this great prayer in the 12 step community. It's called the set aside prayer. Okay, I'm going to share it and then I'm probably going to ski daddle. The set aside prayer goes like this. God, please. Now I'm going to. I'm going to. This is not the official prayer. I'm going to say the prayer right how I've been saying it as regards to politics.
God, please help me set aside everything I think I know about Democrats, about Republicans, about politics, about Donald Trump, about our country, about freedom, so that I may have a new experience of all of these things. Please help me see the truth. That is a common prayer for me. It's an important prayer for me because it is inviting the truth in. In a way that I don't necessarily have access to at any given time. It's hard to say, right? But if I can at least acknowledge that I don't have the truth, or I don't, or maybe only a piece of it, that gives me more peace.
And at the end of the day, that's what I'm talking about. There are people who are very upset. There are people who are, in my judgment, causing themselves and even others a lot of pain as a result of things that they have no control over. And the thing is, is that I don't want to have all of my energy and my mental focus sapped by things like that. So when or if the time comes that I really need to act and act very deliberately and consciously and proactively, that I have all of the resources and the energy and the focus that I need to do that.
So that's my take on conscious living in politics. Thanks so much, and you guys have a great weekend. Take care.
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