Before another year ticks by, take a Trump fast
Is it too late to suggest a late-blooming New Year’s resolution? If you feel exhausted by the energy-sapping news cycle, government shutdown included, this one has your name on it. It’s simple, free and potentially transformative. Ready for it?
Take a Trump fast.
Seriously. Limit or abstain your intake of Trump. Even though this fast bears his name, this isn’t just about him. It includes mainstream and social media too: Twitter, CNN, the New York Times and the lot. This is a bona fide non-partisan fast. For good measure, limit political talk with your family, friends and colleagues too. Try it for a week. Or a month. Maybe longer.
How might this amount to anything, you ask? For starters, it’s the simplest thing that can be done to restore individual sanity. Done on a wholesale basis, it can help sustain our constitutional democracy at a time when it’s sorely needed.
A millennia-old practice, fasting counts Jesus Christ, Gandhi and Beyoncé among its adherents. Its benefits range from weight loss to improved brain function to even self-enlightenment. At its core, fasting is about being grateful for what’s in front of you by going without it. But it’s also about acknowledging dependence on something transcendental, which is not immediately in front of you.
