The Liminal Space of Election Day
The enforced pause in broadcasting about the election on polling day has an oddly ritualistic effect, creating a rare space in our noisy public discourse. Using a term from anthropology, I’d call it a liminal space, meaning a threshold between one state and another, where fresh possibilities emerge.
Such spaces are part of the rhythm by which we live. Right now, night is fading as the sun rises, and we’re approaching the dark time of midwinter when our souls quiver – as TS Eliot says – between freezing and thawing. The Jewish Sabbath makes the week a ritualised cycle, and uposatha days do the same in Buddhist cultures.
Perhaps one reason for the current popularity of contemplative practices like meditation is that they create this liminal space within daily life. The first element of Buddhist meditation is settling the body. That’s fairly simple, but stilling the mind is a longer and subtler process. I’ve learned to be patient as my mind replays the conversations and activities that have stimulated me. When that passes, my plans and projects can come flooding in, along with nagging resentments and frustrations, all of them demanding attention, like bored children. The practice is to notice the thoughts without getting caught up in them and to settle one’s attention on the breath and the body.
Gradually the mind does settle, feelings start to resolve and a different perspective on normal experience can emerge. That’s when it becomes possible to see meditation as a liminal space where one is longer buffeted by reactions.
Retreats, holidays, time by ourselves and walks in nature all offer a similar opportunity to regain perspective, if we approach them in that way. A host of distractions is waiting to fill the space that emerges, starting with our phones and, as in meditation, deeper reflection only comes through resisting them.
Sometimes at least, I find myself reflecting on the degree to which I am swayed, much of the time, by my likes and dislikes, and all my dramas, obsessions and conflicts. I value the moments when I see past them, recognising that my perspective is limited by my subjectivity and the people with whom I disagree have their own viewpoints.
Perhaps we might engage with the election day break in politics in that spirit: as a space where we pause and prepare to face the future, not knowing what it will bring.
