What happens when sickness is mistaken for failure? And honesty for negativity?
This is the great exhaustion of having cancer or COVID or ANY kind of a fragility in a bootstrapping, science-fearing, positive thinking world. To the delusional go the spoils.
Megachurch pastors and televangelists have been (rightly) criticized since the late 1980s for their uncritical promotion of the power of "positive faith" for as a bid for power.
But I would love an honest reckoning for the MANY who have allowed this narrative to go unchallenged
The number of times when I have been asked to make my cancer into a "miracle" or a "failure" (where I have lost my "battle") shows the lack of textured language in this bizarre WINNER TAKE ALL approach to the human condition.
We don't need winners. We need truth.
The performance of invulnerability is ALWAYS theater.
But as a Stage IV cancer patient and a historian of positive thinking, may I joyfully remind you that "fake it till you make it" is neither Christian, presidential, or medically wise.
Life is a chronic condition.
And in case you want both research and anger about this overly causal way of thinking, you may see it reflected here in this published rage spiral.
Why criticizing "positive thinking" in Trump is not simply "negativity."
I answer this question a zillion times a week so here goes.
"Positive thinking" is a shorthand for a movement that took shape in late 1940s as a response to WWII and the economic optimism that shaped the new American middle class.
Its popularizer was a man named Norman Vincent Peale in his 1952 classic "The Power of Positive Thinking"
Positive thinking is a metaphysical tradition, meaning that it rests on deep RELIGIOUS beliefs that the mind is more powerful than the body.
It doesn't just mean "having happy thoughts" or "expressing confidence."
We are scared + under threat.
We are fractured + destabilized by forces of hate and disturbingly smart tech which keeps us from building trust and compassion
We are at the lowest levels of trust in institutions in 60 years (Pew)
So what can we do?
The pandemic offers us a window into our shared humanity. We are tied to one another. Our health and our futures depend on our ability to love our neighbor as ourselves.
But to create any sort of unity, we need to begin with seeking out sources of trust.
Trust is the most precious commodity we have in the information age. Who has earned our trust? Will I hold them to account if they risk of losing it?
It will feel absolutely dumb to care enough to be disappointed. But now is the season to recommit to deep, selective trust.
A pandemic is an exercise in communal thinking. Individualism fails because, suddenly, there is an unavoidable "we."
WE are in danger
WE need protection
WE need healthcare and a safety net when WE fall apart
Americans are famous for their opposition to a communal narrative.
One fun example of why Americans privilege a wildly confident and individualistic story about themselves comes from the difference between the American and Canadian constitution.
🇺🇸 American: life, liberty, pursuit of happiness
🇨🇦 Canadian: peace, order and good governance
There's a lovely example in a lecture by Robert Fulford by about how Americans assume everything must be CONQUERED and not, say, coped with. He writes about a Canadian book by Judylaine Fine called "Your Guide to Coping with Back Pain."
These final days leading to the election end with a sacred little season for Christians: Halloween, All Saints Day and All Souls Day.
Three days to remember our dead.
I wondered if we could use a daily reminder to pray for those who have lost someone and remember their names.
September 22
962,008 worldwide deaths from COVID
198,363 American deaths
Lord, we can no longer understand the scale of what we've lost, the magnitude of its pain. Bring peace so that we can see with clear eyes all that the living require of us now. Amen
If you'd like to add any names of those you've lost or who are sick, I'll pray each day of this season for them and invite any who want to join me. We've got great pray-ers in this community.
Let's try to "like" each other's prayers to remind each other: we are not alone.