Laundromat Caucus

This is not a pro- or anti-Bernie rant. This is just an observation while folding clothes in a Brooklyn laundromat on a Friday night with mostly brown and black people. The NH Primary Debate was on tv. I caught a few minutes. Most of the candidates seemed really nice and considerate. They came across just fine. But there was something when Bernie Sanders came on...that popped. Ppl stopped or looked up from their clothes or got a little quieter. It was eery...like an audio fog was clearing up over the washers and dryers. When you have some who speaks with clarity -regardless of the political leanings- they pop. When you have someone who speaks with passionate clarity, they pop. Now yes, detractors will say 'but Aurin, didn't Trump pop in 2016?' Why, yes he absolutely did. He popped b/c he spoke from a very clear stream of fear/isolationism. There was no nuance, it was straight from his guts. People feel that...even if your guts are filled with poison and ignorance. When someone speaks that clearly, it's hard to tell whether they are coming from the perspective of a crazy zealot or a wise shaman. Both types sound extremely convincing. As I was folding clothes I remembered...

In 2018, I did a month-long meditation retreat in Vermont. I lived on the top floor of a barn perched on a cliff. It overlooked a green valley spiked with smaller mountains. Vermont is a very clean and very green place. It's the kind of place where idealism can grow. One of the teens working on the farm drove me to the train station and said he was going to run for governor while in high school. And I thought 'sure, why not? It's fucking Vermont. You can do anything here.' There's that vibe. At the end of my retreat, I went to a communal dinner with people from surrounding farms.  There was one black woman at the table who was in her 70s. She immediately zoomed in on me and we started talking about her travels and why she moved to Vermont and bought a farm. Somehow we got on the conversation of Bernie Sanders. The old black lady said 'oh, I know Bernie. I know him very well.' I said there were rumors that he might run again in 2020. She shook her head and said he shouldn't run. Oh really: why shouldn't he run? I'll always remember this...she said 'Bernie is too good. I don't want to see him run again. He's too honest.' I forgot that people go flee to Vermont not only to escape the city noise and pollution, but the fog and lies and cruelty of the metropolis life. The woman meant that Bernie should stay here, stay where there are clean views and honest people, don't waste that Vermont clarity on the world outside the curtain of green mountains.

As I folded my clothes in a Williamsburg laundromat I suddenly remembered that black woman in Vermont. I hadn't thought about her in a long time. Maybe the people were quiet when Sanders came on the TV b/c they were getting a taste of that idealistic clarity...maybe the fog was clearing away just a little bit for them, and they could see something.