Trumpovers: An Embodied Compassion Practice
Once Upon a Time...
...while meditating, I started playing around with a version of the Becoming Animal practice that a beautiful donkey once taught me. I felt into my belly... Rick Perry's belly... my clever little paws, Rick Perry's clever little paws... The body is a powerful gateway for embodied compassion. To the extent that I feel and love my own body, I feel and love the bodies of others. After that, I saw Rick Perry a little differently: Sure, I still disliked what he was saying, and his attitudes, but I felt some companionable humanity in my body when I saw him. I felt a bit of recognition. Oh, yeah - belly, hands, feet. OK.
So I wondered: Could taking on some of Trump's attributes have the same effect? Could it change what I and others feel when we see his face? Could the Trumpover truly be an embodied compassion practice, and not a mockery? I bought a wig on eBay and some makeup at the drugstore, and decided to find out.
So I wondered: Could taking on some of Trump's attributes have the same effect? Could it change what I and others feel when we see his face? Could the Trumpover truly be an embodied compassion practice, and not a mockery? I bought a wig on eBay and some makeup at the drugstore, and decided to find out.
Participants' Comments:
I feel bad for him if he wears that much makeup every day :/
it made me feel very different
I was glad to take the makeup off
it’s a fun lark at first glance, then it’s about being magnanimous to a person who seems so loathsome, and then it’s deeply frightening – like a magic trick you’re sure won’t really work, but has that tiny shard of doubt where maybe I’m in a story where it does…
Matt
I’m still waiting to wake up from this nightmare.
Gross. I didn’t want to put all that stuff on my face. I don’t want to be associated with him. I don’t want to touch him. I don’t want to feel all the feelings I feel when I think about him. Ughghhhh. it makes me so MAD
so so so MAD.
Hopelessly mad. But I did it. So that’s something.
I have compassion and sympathy for Donald. The energy going into the façade. I hope for him that he develops the ability to reflect and slow down. Move from his heart and not his ego.
Being Trumped was like embracing all that revolts me. It was awkward and absurd. I felt absurd. We have that in common.
Making a TRUMP face makes my face hurt. I wonder if he has a lot of headaches.
We are all, ourselves, our families, our institutions, our dreams, more racist, sexist, selfish and crude than we would like to think – society, our own, our families, and institutions and dreamscapes dreams are our only salvation.
At first I had some reservations about Trump-over but I relent – in order to embrace my inner Trump and to get on without unchecked anxiety about what’s to come.
It takes more muscles to frown than it does to clown around.
Literally every meaningful conversation I’ve had this week has featured Kali. I have to think that’s a good sign. Kali and Trump are somehow connected.
Being Trump made me appreciate the freedom to walk out the door bare-faced, eyes open. I hope, in office, something of that human, natural authority will arrive for him. I hope I will keep my eyes open.
Becoming Trumped made me realize that we all perform ourselves, quite separately from our inner selves.
Feeling like this façade will run right off with the heat and pressure of the moment. I can’t imagine how he will keep it up!
Mug shot made me a bit trembly.
This just feels wrong!!!
I have been expecting this descent into fascism for a long time. Things have already changed socially in many places and we had better be prepared for a rapid free-fall into a more authoritarian regime. To me it is shocking and a huge letdown that so many people embrace Trump’s hateful mindset.
it made me feel very different
I was glad to take the makeup off
it’s a fun lark at first glance, then it’s about being magnanimous to a person who seems so loathsome, and then it’s deeply frightening – like a magic trick you’re sure won’t really work, but has that tiny shard of doubt where maybe I’m in a story where it does…
Matt
I’m still waiting to wake up from this nightmare.
Gross. I didn’t want to put all that stuff on my face. I don’t want to be associated with him. I don’t want to touch him. I don’t want to feel all the feelings I feel when I think about him. Ughghhhh. it makes me so MAD
so so so MAD.
Hopelessly mad. But I did it. So that’s something.
I have compassion and sympathy for Donald. The energy going into the façade. I hope for him that he develops the ability to reflect and slow down. Move from his heart and not his ego.
Being Trumped was like embracing all that revolts me. It was awkward and absurd. I felt absurd. We have that in common.
Making a TRUMP face makes my face hurt. I wonder if he has a lot of headaches.
We are all, ourselves, our families, our institutions, our dreams, more racist, sexist, selfish and crude than we would like to think – society, our own, our families, and institutions and dreamscapes dreams are our only salvation.
At first I had some reservations about Trump-over but I relent – in order to embrace my inner Trump and to get on without unchecked anxiety about what’s to come.
It takes more muscles to frown than it does to clown around.
Literally every meaningful conversation I’ve had this week has featured Kali. I have to think that’s a good sign. Kali and Trump are somehow connected.
Being Trump made me appreciate the freedom to walk out the door bare-faced, eyes open. I hope, in office, something of that human, natural authority will arrive for him. I hope I will keep my eyes open.
Becoming Trumped made me realize that we all perform ourselves, quite separately from our inner selves.
Feeling like this façade will run right off with the heat and pressure of the moment. I can’t imagine how he will keep it up!
Mug shot made me a bit trembly.
This just feels wrong!!!
I have been expecting this descent into fascism for a long time. Things have already changed socially in many places and we had better be prepared for a rapid free-fall into a more authoritarian regime. To me it is shocking and a huge letdown that so many people embrace Trump’s hateful mindset.
What's Next?
The experience of staging First Friday Free Trumpovers with Larissa King in her studio, in White River Junction, VT in December 2016, convinced me that Trumpovers are a worthwhile practice. I plan to offer them again. If you have an idea about where to stage them, please contact me. Also, you can follow this project on Facebook. Stay tuned!