The Little Girl in Cory Booker

A faction in America seems hellbent on destroying the country in order to save it from Donald Trump. What do we owe them?

For many years, I wrote and preached that we owe them contempt and anger. That we must fight them tooth and nail. And that we must prevail.

And we did. And our victories led to bigger battles. The thrill of victory proved fleeting.

Don’t you hope for a victory that lasts? A thrill that never ends?

I wrote about this faction yesterday. That post began with an assertion that this faction does the devil’s bidding and ended with a wish, that they all go to heaven. But, how can both be true?

When you watch the movie The Exorcist, do you hope that Regan (the little girl possessed by the devil) goes to hell? 

Of course not. Not unless you’re a devil worshipper. A normal, healthy person, even a sane atheist, hopes that Father Karras drives the devil out of the girl. 

Our job, then, is to see the little girl in even the most violent anti-Americans. 

There’s a little Regan in Cory Booker. In Kamala Harris, you’ll find a little Regan, too. Even in cryin' Chuck Schumer, there’s a little Regan. 

Our wish must be for the little girl to emerge from these grown men and women and that the little girl expels their demons. 

The little girl in all of us is where God dwells. God made us all of us, the left and right, Antifa and Tea Party, in his own image and likeness. He declared us “very good.” (He called his other creation “good.” Man alone was deemed very good.)

Both Stoicism and Christianity urge us to treat things outside of our direct control as “indifferents.” There are preferred indifferents, like Judge Kavanaugh’s confirmation and even the survival of our nation. But they’re still indifferents. They are things that do not affect our emotional state. Anger and frustration are reserved for the things under our complete control: our aversions and appetites, our actions, our beliefs. 

Jesus taught us to pluck out our eye if it causes us to sin. For most of my life, I had a strong appetite for politics and a strong aversion to a certain kind of politics, if you get my drift. It led me into sin. Because I have complete control of my aversions and appetites, with God’s graces I am reforming my aversions and appetites. I am making political outcomes preferred indifferents in my life. I have a preference, but my emotional state is not affected by the outcome. 

This is my strategy to achieve interior freedom. I’m learning from a great book by Father Jacques Phillipe called Interior Freedom. If I could afford to buy a copy for everyone who reads my blog, I would. It’s that important. And if you’ve read my posts on Stoicism, you’re well on your way to living in complete interior freedom.

In other words, I’m exorcising the demons in me before attempting to exorcise the demons in Cory Booker or Kamala Harris, let alone the demons creeping all our around our country looking for souls to devour.

I hope you’ll read Interior Freedom by Jacques Phillipe. It will make you happy. And happiness love company.