Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

I believe my Zen teacher, now deceased, would have approved of Joe Biden's speech yesterday. It was Right Speech because: it came from the heart not the head, he described our national issues without providing simple, magical solutions. He spoke of what Right Effort is: that the indention be deliberate and not impulsive, that blame and analyizing the past is unproductive, and we must move forward step by step. He was an example of equanimity, neither grasping or pushing away from truth with aversion. Yes I think she'd be pleased. No grandiosity was displayed, no despair, just q willingness to do the best you can do in difficult circumstances for the right reasons and not for self gain or self interest but seeing us all as one interconnected organism that good, kind actions will benefit. It is love. And I was thrilled by all the mentions of this compassionate kind of love as an aspiration. Biden's fearlessness in calling on love, the way Marianne Williamson did in the summer as a candidate, where she was ridiculed for it, is deeply encouraging. He's not afraid to talk about feelings, and not just as his own but as all of humanity's core of being.