In the midst of the
intensification of the very polarized and thus divisive U.S. presidential
campaign “season” (i.e., year) during its last week, Halloween of 2024 occurred
in Boston, Massachusetts not only without the need of trick-or-treaters and
their parents to wear winter coats, but also with the option of wearing
shorts and short-sleeve shirts without even having to wear a light jacket. That
this was so as late as 8pm was nothing short of surreal not only to New
Englanders, but also to any transplants from the northern-tier Midwestern and
Plains states. It being around 70F
degrees well into the dark hours was nothing short of unprecedented, and so
much so that the negative impact of the cold climate in detracting from the holiday
in prior years could finally be grasped. I had realized this more than a decade
earlier when I was in Miami during Halloween. There is indeed a silver lining
to global warming for people living in places that are cold during the late
fall, winter, and early spring seasons, even as contrary to political
correctness it is to admit this even to friends. The proclivity of the human
mind/brain to divide up the world in terms of dichotomies of mutually-exclusive,
antagonistic poles does not necessarily fit with empirically with the real world.
Taoism speaks to this.
Themes in The Dao De Jing include
appearance versus reality, and order versus disorder. Maya, which means
illusion, is in appearances but not reality. Both order and disorder are in
appearance, and perhaps in reality as well. At the very least, Newtonian physics
and quantum physics taken together provide good evidence that instances of both
order and disorder exist in nature. This is without doubt in human society too.
A political system can be stable for a period of time then suddenly, in the
midst of revolutionary fervor, become disordered. Times of peace are more orderly
than are times of war. Nevertheless, it is important not to overdo the
starkness of these dichotomies. There is order even during war, and instability
even in times of peace. In terms of the American political polarity being projected
onto the member-states, President Obama reminded Americans that people drive
pick-up trucks in “blue” (i.e., liberal) states and there are gays in the “red”
(i.e, conservative) states. There is
some red in the blue and some blue in the red. Not that both colors mix or “bleed”
into each other; rather, some of the other color can be drawn in as an island
of sorts in a state colored red or blue. This has been visualized as the Ying
and Yang of Taoism.
The Ying and Yang were
originally meant a theoretical constructs used to explain change in nature.
Literally, shade on the northern side of a hill can become directly lit by the Sun,
and the sun-lit southern side can turn to shade—both as the Sun moves with
respect to the hill. In Boston, that might be Bunker Hill. Dong Zhongshu
(179-104 BCE) in China misinterpreted Ying and Yang to apply mostly to humans,
as for example in terms of gender and hierarchy. The point of Ying and Yang was
originally that difference forces in nature interact and can change into each
other, whereas Confucianism has emphasized hierarchy and human control over
other humans. We distinguish weak and strong, but in actuality things are
always changing, and here we can see the imprint of Buddhism on Taoism. It is a
trap, according to Taoist teachings, to divide things into polar opposites and
value one pole over the other. Going to extremes doesn’t work in the long run.
A weapon that is too hard will break; a tree that is too strong will crack; the
strong and mighty may reside down below and the soft and supple may reside on
top. The moral power, or De, of the way of nature (or the natural way), Dao,
is not in favor of the artificial, absolutist dichotomies that we construct in making
distinctions in the world.
Our assumption that the good
and bad cannot touch falls prey to the point that some aspects of a good thing may
be bad, and that some aspects of a bad thing, such as climate change, may be
good. A Taoist would tell us that we should not feel morally ashamed in
admitting this to ourselves and others. It is ok to celebrate being out on a
warm night on Halloween in Boston or Chicago, for instance. In the case of
Boston in 2024, at an informal street festival, a woman wore a cape as part of
her costume. She was part of an informal marching band. Written on her cape was
“Climate Mom.” I submit that “Climate Grandmother” might have been more
fitting, as, at the very least, it would have suggested that record carbon
emissions from human sources in the prior year would be “paid for” especially
by the kids at the festival. Even in their case, the prospect that more of
their Halloweens will likely not be hindered by having to wear a winter coat
over a costume, and cut short, or compromised, by the physiological urgency of
getting back inside somewhere to warm up, can be admitted to be a plus. Every Halloween
of my youth in the northern Midwest meant that a winter coat had to cover whatever
costume I wanted to show off while “trick-or-treating” outside.
That the Climate Mom was allowing
herself to dance even as kids were too during a street-fest in Boston in 2024 suggests
that even the dichotomy between the concerned grandmother and the care-free
kids who would not have to wait many decades before they feel more of the bad
effects of climate change can be relativized in a common spirit of enjoying the
experience of being alive. The musicians playing in the crowd of revelers
were caught up in the surreal experience of playing and dancing on a warm Halloween
night in Massachusetts, which is north of New York City and just south of
Maine.
Similarly, as the U.S. presidential
campaign was really getting heated in the rhetoric being tossed around that
week, a Trump supporter could admit to agreeing with something that Harris
said, and a Harris supporter could admit to agreeing with one of Trump’s
policy-suggestions. This bit of blue amid red and bit of red amid blue was
almost unheard of in 2024, as partisans perhaps more than in any other presidential
campaign season since World War II painted the opposing candidate as the
incarnation of evil itself. In actuality, both Harris and Trump, like the rest
of us, were still human beings and thus imperfect, again, like the rest of us.
None of us are saviors or Satan, so it is important to distinguish ourselves
and the world in which we live from the mythic language used in religion.
Imagine if you will, people so glad that Halloween was on such a nice evening
that a spirit of joyful dancing in a street could even include Harris and Trump,
with everyone even at close contact, without thieves or police, simply relishing
the experience of the senses in being alive without personal sorrows, politics,
climate change, or foreign wars obstructing, for however briefly. Even the
Climate Mom was dancing on a night in which it was clear to everyone that
climate change was part of the cause of the comfortable temperature.
