Finding a hope never up for re-election

​Oliver Burkeman says, "worry, at its core, is the repetitious experience of a mind attempting to generate a feeling of security about the future, failing, then trying again and again and again - as if the very effort of worrying might somehow forestall the disaster."

We are rapidly approaching election day. Both sides are getting louder and more desperate with their warnings; disaster waits with a vote for the other side.

Here is what I know about this election. Two sides are equally worried about what happens if the other side wins. Here is what I also know about this election. Once one side wins, the victors will immediately go to worrying for four years about keeping what they've won, the other side will get to worrying for four years about how to dismantle that before the next election.

This isn't a prediction, this is history.

This is the 14th election I've been eligible to vote in. I won't swear that I've voted in every election; I believe I have. But this I will swear to, that I've seen both sides win over the course of those 14 elections, and never once did it result in a country no longer worried.

It's the nature of elections. And our politicians know it. If you look at the campaign ads from both sides, they all attempt to drive home what we have most to worry about if the other side is elected. Winning elections has always been built on convincing us the other side winning should scare us to death, making the logical vote the one that makes us believe we have nothing to worry about at all.

Only, that has never been the result. In fact, because we have so many platforms from which to fuel worry, and so many additional loud voices willing to preach worry from those platforms, the spin cycle of worry has only intensified. Politicians are getting much better at stoking fear than alleviating it, because sadly, stoking has proven to be a more successful campaign and re-election strategy than alleviating.

So what is the answer? I really don't have one other than the one I use to alleviate my own personal worries.

I look to the book of Matthew in the bible. In it you will read:

Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life ? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin.

Interesting that over 2000 years ago Jesus was addressing the laborious and self-destructive spin cycle of worry.

And offering guidance.

His guidance is to put our focus on that which isn't elected in our lives every four years. Look up at the birds as a reminder we have a higher power in our lives constantly watching over us and guiding us; look to the flowers as a reminder that if we are rooted in the soil of that which has a heart for growing us and not stoking the fear in us, we have no need to worry.

For me, that focus is my God and creator. Maybe for others that isn't the case, but maybe they can find alleviating in family and friends, nature itself, a higher power in their lives that isn't necessarily God.

That's a choice left for us all to make.

I just know, based on history, if we are looking for our grandest fears to be alleviated by our election cycles, chances are you will find only more and more worry. Because more and more, that's the goal of politics.

Worry.

It seems to be a winning strategy.

For politicians.

As for us, well, that's clearly up to you.