It seems I’m on a theme here. Because this post is about the intersection of mindfulness and… cat poop. It’s not the first time I’ve spoken of this, either.

So this would be my, er, “number two” post on the subject.

So this morning I woke up rather grumpy. I’ve just got a few heavy things on my mind.

First, of course, is that our piece-of-shit President has eight days left in office. He’s done a laundry list of terrible, immoral, illegal, unethical things for which he needs to be held accountable.

And yet, a number of GOP folks won’t. And yet, a whole lot of my fellow citizens don’t see it that way.

Which makes me despondent, and grumpy.

Then there’s tomorrow. Tomorrow is not just the day the Democrats will impeach him again. It’s also my fiftieth birthday. I am weirdly conflicted about this. On the one hand, it’s a milestone to have a fiftieth birthday. On the other, it’s just another day. I know what I wanted to do for my fiftieth birthday. I wanted to be spending it in Florida, at a paramotoring school, and lift off into the air to celebrate. The pandemic, and other life circumstances made that just not possible.

It’s okay.

I am going to do that. It’s not an IF, it’s a WHEN.

Okay, so what’s this all got to do with cat poop. So that death-star-looking-thing by my stairs, that’s my cats’ robotic litter box (seriously), “Pottybot.” (That’s the box’s name, technically speaking it’s a Litter-Robot 3 Connect.).

Well, I’m downstairs, feeding the cats and the fish and myself breakfast. I get the fish fed, get the cats fed, and then good ol’ Pottybot messages me (because, as I said, it’s a robot) that its drawer is full.

Joy.

I immediately stop the process of putting together a bowl of cereal, blueberries, and milk for myself, and go empty the drawer. Which really, is no big deal. It’s an incredibly fast process that is made as pleasant as possible for you by the machine. You open the drawer, draw up the sides of the plastic bag liner, twist the bag shut, knot it. Then you shake open a new liner, pull the edges of it over the four retaining hooks in the drawer to keep it open and taut, and replace the drawer.

It’s like a 4 minute thing, end-to-end. But here’s the thing: when it’s time to do it, it is 100%, no fucking around, time to do it. Leaving the drawer in a full state is what Colonel Joe Bishop in the Expeditionary Force books would call a November Golf, a no-go. The potential cat-poop-calamity that would likely ensue for not doing it is… horrible.

I was glad to do it. Not at first, yeah. But really once I had embraced the necessity of doing it, I was just fine, happy even.

That was when I found my zen. The taoist concept I’m tip-toeing around here, albeit with a gross example, is called wu-wei, the “action of inaction.” It’s the principle of doing only that which you must.

Which really has two sides to it.

First, there’s the not-doing-needless-things-part. Like, my being grumpy about Trump isn’t going to make tomorrow’s impeachment get here any faster. It isn’t going to change that some people are just not good people. It isn’t going to magically rewrite time to make me be in Florida right now, kiting a Paramotor.

But second, there’s the do what you must part. All that expectation-holding-nonsense gets in the way of meeting necessity. When Pottybot told me what I needed to do, it felt really, really good to be able to see that it was vital, and just go take care of it.

After I got Pottybot all taken care of, I washed my hands and made myself that breakfast, and sat mulling all this over. I realized I needed to write this post. And then, while I was doing so, Yang got in the box, and did what cats do in their litterboxes. And then Pottybot took care of it, without a problem. All three of us, just doing what’s necessary.

So I have a daily practice of meditation and contemplation. I thought I might share with you my contemplation for today. It’s about fidelity.

Let’s start with a definition and how I interpret it.

Fidelity: noun

1. strict observance of promises, duties, etc.: a servant's fidelity.
2. loyalty: fidelity to one's country.
3. conjugal faithfulness.
4. adherence to fact or detail.
5. accuracy; exactness: The speech was transcribed with great fidelity.
6. Audio, Video.the degree of accuracy with which sound or images are recorded or reproduced.

In my head I sort of munge together all six of these definitions .

To me, fidelity requires me to understand my own values, my own moral and ethical requirements in order to keep to them with conviction.

And that’s kind of a big deal.

Lately with Donald Trump in the White House, with the pandemic raging out-of-control, with institutionalized and systemic racism more virulent than ever, with police brutality running largely unchecked, fidelity is crucial.

As anyone who knows me well will tell you, I’m kind of a pain in the ass.

I constantly question everything. I’m not a fan of the status quo. I don’t do things because anybody else does them.

So I have this strongly held belief in non-duality. I believe that every living thing is part of the same thing. Harm done to you, is harm done to me as well. Harm done by me, same deal. I am the universe expressing itself in this place in this time in this body. So is everyone else.

That puts me squarely in the place of trying to reduce harm. I can’t eliminate it. That’s just not possible. But I can do my best to reduce my “harm footprint“ as much as I can.

How that manifests itself has to do with my own fidelity to those values. I tend to be kind and compassionate as a default. I favor inclusion over exclusion. I am 100% willing to be called on my own shit. I always recognize there’s room for improvement.

I’m not perfect. I also sadly embrace the truth that there isn’t any such thing as perfect in the human condition.

I can be lazy, self-centered, sometimes thoughtless. It’s okay though. Part of my mindful practice, part of that discipline is recognizing I’m going to fall down and that it’s up to me to pick myself back up again .

Part of my contemplation about fidelity has to do with that part of the definition about clarity and detail. It takes time, effort, and energy for me to understand my own values. It also takes time, effort and energy to absorb those of other people around me.

And let me be clear about what I mean by that.

I mean that I need exposure to a person, to what they say and do to get a sense of who they are and what their values are. I also mean that when someone demonstrates a quality that is in line with my values or which I admire I tend to move toward them and try to emulate them.

But there’s another definition too. I also mean that I need time to figure out when there is a disconnect between myself and that person. That last part it’s often really hard for me. I have abandonment issues and I don’t like goodbyes. As I have gotten older I am learning that goodbyes are OK, often necessary.

Which brings me back to the whole fidelity thing, and to the current state of affairs in our nation. I don’t wish ill upon anybody. I’m generally not an “us and them” type.

I remember when Osama bin Laden was killed and people were parading in the streets celebrating. I didn’t celebrate. He was an inhuman monster, and should have rotted in a jail cell for the rest of his life.

I don’t believe in the death penalty for anybody.

I recognize that this makes me quite separate from most people, and an oddball. There are circles in which it would make me a pariah.

I still stick to it though because of fidelity to my values.

Here’s the deal: there are people who are pro-Trump for all sorts of different reasons. I don’t care what any of those reasons are.

Well that’s inaccurate . I care greatly. I figure the people who support him are either ill-informed, fearful, biased, selfish, or have been duped. I have this shortlist of people who I keep in my life who are pro Trump. They’re on the list because they have great meaning to me as people and the pain of losing them in my life outweighs my discomfort at their choice.

It’s a very small number.

Generally, when someone identifies themselves to me as pro Trump, or their actions reveal that this is so, or they even give Trump supporters a pass saying that it’s just politics I turn away from them. I don’t wish them harm, I just remove them from my life.

Because that choice to enable the great harm that that man and those who support him do is contrary to my fidelity. It’s not that I’m a Democrat and I want my side to win. I don’t have a side. There are no sides, to me. Sides are for contests and sporting events.

In my opinion people often treat politics like some sort of intellectual exercise. I’m known to have a fondness for food metaphors. People often treat politics like picking a restaurant. Do you want sushi or to go out for steak?

And sometimes politics are like that. What should we spend the county budget on?

But certainly not this time and certainly not in this place. This is more like asking does everyone deserve to eat? Or who gets food and who dies?

Let me be as clear as I can here too.

This is my contemplation that I am sharing with you. I’m not trying to convince you of anything, not trying to persuade you, not threatening you with the consequence of being booted out of my life. I’m taking a process I do daily and sharing it where you can see it. That’s all.

Over the past almost 4 years I have slowly but surely turned away from many people. I’ve also taken the time, focus, energy, and even money I would have spent on those people and put them towards other things, other efforts, and other people whose values share fidelity with my own.

#gratitudeNow: No. Two Zen

#Important: Hi, Fidelity

Fidelity: noun

#365Gratitude Day 28:Things Change

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