Like many American today, I woke up and had the election on my mind. I believe that having a Democrat in office is never a good thing, but I suspect that we will once again elect one this term.
While thinking about the election, I turned and picked up a book, Moving Toward Stillness, by Dave Lowry. I have been re-reading this book a chapter at a time and today, the chapter was entitled "ich-igo, ich-ie (One Encounter, One Chance)" (I think that's the way it is spelled). Lowry explains that the one encounter, one chance philosophy is prevalent in Japanese Sword Arts as well as Japanese Flower Arts.
I thought about it in terms of the election. This will be an historic election; we will either elect our first black president or our first female vice-president. This is our one encounter, one chance.
With a sword, each fight should be treated as if it could be your last. With flower arrangement, one wrong move could destroy an entire arrangement. It goes back to Zen philosophy in that you need to be fully engaged in what you are doing - you only have one chance.
Today we only have one chance at this election. Sure, we'll have other elections, but we will not have a chance to re-do this election. I hope that everyone goes into this election with full focus on their vote and it's power.
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