Remember in 2014 when Gwyneth Paltrow shared her use of the term conscious uncoupling?  It was all about a mindful and respectful way to end a relationship. That phrase has been rolling around my brain cells for a few weeks now. So too has the term domestic violence.  

How might the world engage in a conscious uncoupling from the United States of America and effectively bypass the abusive domestic violence the USA is intent on doling out?   

Let me hasten to add that it is NOT an action the sanest of the countries would ever want to undertake. Because, in the main, most of us like, love, adore, tolerate, put up with, and seek out the American people.  And despite vast differences in policies, priorities and politics, the sanest countries have always found a way to compromise and move forward.  In a mindful and respectful way.  With zero thought of ending the relationship.   

However, NOW, in the year 2025, the Great Orange Obliterator (the GOO) of the once-great United States of America is successfully engaged in massive domestic abuse.    

Did you know that 70% of the North American population was born after 1945?  For most of us, who live in Canada, the US and Mexico, our lives have been consciously coupled and intertwined together for as long as we can remember.  Domestic violence has never ever been a thing we’ve thought of, let alone endured.  But that day is now here.  

The GOO is wreaking havoc everywhere. Brutal, cruel, violent, terrorizing, vicious and hot-headed. Internally, the GOO is already sliming every law and norm that has governed that country for nearly 250 years.  Externally, tariff wars meant to restore the concept of greatness to Americans will harm all three countries irreparably.  From the punitive financial impacts to the psychological effects to the destruction of the trust, we have all enjoyed and prospered from the almost always fine neighbours’ attitude.  Quickly disappearing, I’ll wager, never to return again.  

Forgive the cliche, but we have entered a great uncertainty.  Why?  Smarter brains than mine say the “rule of law” is all about predictability. We need predictability to be free. And those same brains note that in 1517, Niccolò Machiavelli argued that sometimes it is “a very wise thing to simulate madness”.  Then, in his 1962 book Thinking About the Unthinkable, futurist Herman Kahn argued that to “look a little crazy” might be an effective way to induce an adversary to stand down.   

While I do NOT put Mexico and Canada and Greenland et al in the category of an American adversary, I do see there is a hella lot of crazy going on, and madness seems to be the new look for sanity.   Which really drives home this point.  Written by Aaron Sorkin, performed by Jeff Daniels and aired in June of 2012. And well worth a revisit.

The thing about domestic violence is it is ONLY successful in inflicting emotional and financial damage.  It does not EVER change the essence of who we are. By the time this is even halfway over, our worlds will be very different from what they were even last summer. At the same time, we will ALL be stronger, more resilient and wiser.   

For us, the neighbours of the USA, you might ask what WE can do.  

Support our country; support our leaders  

Support Team Canada. Review everything you buy.  Ask yourself if you are supporting your own country or someone else’s.  Trust our leaders.  Sure, we’d all like to have things different.  However, the leaders we have today are the best we’ve got.  Trust that they will get us through.  Exercise your vote.  Better believe those folks who chose not to exercise their vote in the last US election are having regrets.  

Fill your own cup  

Don’t forget to check in on our US friends and family