This morning when I read of another of Trump’s tantrums, this one with the Supreme Court, members he appointed to obey him, rather than to honor the law, common sense, and their own conscience, I remembered when my very young son spouted: “You’re not the boss of me.”  

He was proclaiming his individuality which is essential and important, and he was learning he was a child in a family, in a community, so his proclaimed autonomy fit into a larger world, one meant to protect and integrate him. He was a part of a whole.  

Trump views himself as a king with unlimited powers.  He doesn’t know the constitution, doesn’t know the Declaration of Independence.  He doesn’t seem to know or care that there are three branches of government, Legislative, Executive, and Judicial, created to balance one person’s ego and corruption.  And so now we endure another temper tantrum.

An unknown friend goes back through my blog and likes posts from the past.  His likes bring me to past posts, and today I’m with a post from November 23, 2021 titled Gratitude. I was celebrating the honoring of gratitude as more than one day of Thanksgiving. I wrote: 

This is the week designated for gratitude.  The light spreads its rays as though we are meant to climb out of ourselves into connection with a wider world.  We can also be grateful for who and what we are, this wonderful assemblage in time and space.

Alan Watts:

WHAT I AM REALLY SAYING IS THAT YOU DON’T NEED TO DO ANYTHING, BECAUSE IF YOU SEE YOURSELF IN THE CORRECT WAY, YOU ARE ALL AS MUCH EXTRAORDINARY PHENOMENON OF NATURE AS TREES, CLOUDS, THE PATTERNS IN RUNNING WATER, THE FLICKERING OF FIRE, THE ARRANGEMENT OF THE STARS, AND THE FORM OF A GALAXY. YOU ARE ALL JUST LIKE THAT, AND THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH YOU AT ALL.