Sooooo, I am lying face down on the table relishing my weekly scenar treatment where my body talks to my body and sorts itself out. Penny, the practitioner, says: ”So what do you think about the election?”
I immediately do the “blowfish puff up thing”, ready to give my best pontification on the latest, and then, sanity prevails. I hear myself say: “Well, I have decided to leave the coliseum.” My body immediately relaxes and I laugh, as so often happens when a truth falls from my lips. So, I rewind and muse about what I just said:
"I HAVE DECIDED TO LEAVE THE COLISEUM!"
I have this stunning picture of Congress as opposing teams of gladiators running around screaming at each other, whacking away with swords, blood flying and when enough of that has gone on to please the crowd, they march off. Steeped in self satisfaction, they revel in a job well done, backslapping team members, relishing the good pay a gladiator gets, and believing that opposition has once again saved the day. 
Well, NO, opposition does not save the day! Opposition gets stuck in opposites, and opposites get stuck in polarities and polarities cause paralysis. Nothing really changes because everyone continues in the same loop of illusion that truly believes that two parties in opposition can accomplish anything. The truth is that two parties in opposition just stay stuck in opposition. Politics in a nutshell….
The absolute beauty of lying on a table in a half sleep is that my civilized mind was more or less off duty allowing the sanest solution to this very tiresome political masquerade to pop out, so simply and so brilliantly. I can choose to leave the coliseum. We can all choose to leave the coliseum!
Now as a coach I am compelled to milk this metaphor for all it’s worth.
Where in your life are you convinced that opposition is necessary or the norm and so you suit up as a gladiator? Is it in your job? Your primary relationship? At bored meetings? Is it when involved in legal stuff or health care stuff or religious stuff? Might you think that a contentious atmosphere, a good skirmish frought with antagonism and opposition is really proof that you are doing something. Proof that you are a professional? Proof that you are doing your job? Proof that you have power? Proof that you are right?
So, what if opposition, debate, and party politics are dinosaurs–so tired, so weary, so dead that there is nothing to be done but pull the plug. What if that same opposition and debate and politics goes on inside of each of us and depletes us and makes us weary, literally gives us chronic fatigue.
Well, your coach says “enough is enough”! If you’re tired or disillusioned or checking out, then leave the coliseum. The game is over when the gladiators walk. Suit up for a latte, sit down and try silence. Who says conflict, opposition, and two of anything with opposing views is the way to any sort of truth for yourself or for the country.
Morgana Leaves the Coliseum!
Leave the coliseum wherever you’ve got one going in your life and give your armor to Good-will!
Now, there’s a concept.
OH, and bless Rumi who said:
“Beyond rightdoing and wrongdoing, there is a field. I will meet you there.”
(“no armor allowed”) Well, I said that actually!
