Dear President-Elect Trump:
Several of my letters have referred to the invisible forces around us. I referred to them in my November 16th letter invisible forces, when I suggested that we have settled for lesser forms of power. On November 17th, I also referred to invisible forces in my letter All Eyes Are On You, Mr. Trump. November 18th, Inclusion, also speaks of it.
The invisible forces that govern our world are forces that can neither be circumvented nor ignored. I once saw a teenager sporting a t-shirt that bore the phrase: “Obey gravity. It’s the law.” Natural powers demand obedience. Circumvention or amendment is not possible.
Two over-arching opposing forces govern the world. They exist in natural opposition to each other because everything is held together by the opposition. Freedom requires diverse/opposite opinions to flourish. Criminal justice requires prosecution and defense to maintain freedom. For there to be health, there must be sickness; wealth cannot exist without its opposite. Even fruit trees require a certain number of warm and cold days in order to bear fruit.
Love and fear are our over-arching opposing forces. They go by other names as well, but I prefer love and fear. As humans, each of us has no choice whether to gravitate toward one or the other, love and fear take each human heart as its bounty. But—we are free to choose which force we prefer. Being opposites, we’re either gravitating toward one or the other.
The momentum of each choice we make draws us closer and closer to whichever power we choose. Each power imbues portions of itself on the actions of men and women, meaning that everything we do carries with it either the power of love or the power of fear. How families, communities, nations, and the world prospers or suffers is determined by the aggregate choice of each member. We each affect the whole.
Love or fear: There is no middle ground.
In the coming days, I will speak of each.
Sincerely,
David O. Leavitt
