Lao Tzu's wisdom for a post-election nation

By Erik Walker Wikstrom

The story is told that in the 8th century B.C.E., an eighty year old man grew disillusioned with the tenor of his society and decided to leave China so that he could live out his last years in peace in the hinterlands. As he approached the border, however, a guard recognized him as Lao Tzu, keeper of the imperial archives, a man known for his great wisdom. The guard refused to let him pass through the border, to turn his back on his country, without leaving behind some record of his insights. The result was the eighty-one chapters that make up the Tao te Ching, the spiritual classic that is central not only to Taoism but informs Chinese Buddhism, Zen, and other traditions as well.

With the 2010 elections behind us now - and the painfully ugly election season that preceded it, as well - I find myself thinking of Lao Tzu's wisdom. While many people recognize the Tao te Ching as a mystical treatise on how one should live one's life, it's often overlooked that it's also a text about how to govern a country. (One chapter begins, "Governing a country is like frying a small fish; you ruin it with too much poking.")

In particular I find myself thinking about the 24th Chapter. One translation puts it like this:

"Walk the path of Tao. Leave behind self-promotion, self-serving, and self-righteousness. Just serve."

On Election Day I watched the results on both FOX and MSNBC, as well as on several local stations. Everyone seemed to have an axe to grind, a narrative to confirm, a point to prove.

Today I have a wish. I wish that everyone -- in the whole country -- could take a deep breath -- would take a deep breath -- and remember what really matters. It's not "scoring points." It's not revealing how wrong, or evil, or stupid "the other side" is. We differ on the "how," but everyone wants this country to prosper (which means wants its citizens to prosper) and for our world to be safe. Wouldn't it be great if we could stop fighting long enought to try to figure out how to accomplish those goals?

In the Christian tradition it is taught that everyone is a sinner. Everyone. No exceptions. Teaparty folk. Plain old Republicans. Democrats. Far left wingers. All of us. Everyone, to some extent, used misleading ads, and puffed up their own image while degrading their opponents. Everyone tried to make the other person look bad. Everyone was, in some way or other at some time or other, disingenuous. Everyone used "lies, damned lies, and statistics." No one told "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth."

Acknowledging that, let's stop accusing one another of what we, ourselves, have done. Instead, let's take a deep breath. (It would be good if we could all confess our own sins, but that might be asking too much.) And then let's look at the real problems facing our nation and our world and see where we might be able to agree on solutions. Start there, with what we can agree on. Build from that. Keep looking for places of agreements, leaving the disagreements aside until all the points of agreement have been found. And through it all, as Lao Tzu said, "Leave behind self-promotion, self-serving, and self-righteousness. Just serve."

Erik Walker Wikstrom is a Unitarian Universalist minister and author. He has published Teacher, Guide, Companion: rediscovering Jesus in a secular age; Simply Pray: a modern spiritual practice to deepen your life; and, most recently, Serving With Grace: lay leadership as a spiritual practice (all from Skinner House Books).

By Erik Walker Wikstrom  |  November 5, 2010; 4:14 PM ET Save & Share:                 
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