Better World
Humanity needs us to believe in a better world, and start working toward it. Cynicism is selfish as well as pointless, and even though the times might be frightening, and solutions seem distant, shrugging is boring, ineffective, and not an option. And solutions are actually one-footstep-in-front-of-the-other close.
We live in the world we build, or the one we’re afraid of. That fear-world is noise: deafening, defeating, numbing; and in it, we are small and cowed, throwing our hands up in defeat. The building-world is the opposite of surrender, the audacity of envisioning something different, something better, and then laying bricks, and mud, and straw to contrive it.
The right thing to do is still the right thing to do when others abandon it, when the corrupt are winning, and when the outcome is uncertain. Go down swinging. Build something, stand for something, see something/say something. The sniveling, empty-headed endorsement of any stupid thing that comes out of “dear leader’s” mouth is so simpering and beta it’s disgusting. These groveling people we elected aren’t leaders. You need a spine to lead and they’ve forgotten how to stand erect. They’re one-celled amebas in their stature and in their responses to obvious absurdities. That can’t represent us, so they need to rediscover their spine, or we need to vote them out.
When I reread the Gospels several years ago without the preconceptions of the things I was taught, it truly changed my life. Faith is complicated for me. Its beauty is enmeshed in trauma and I can’t pull on one thread without tugging at the other. But as I re-read the Gospels, I got to see what COULD be. I saw the vision of the future Jesus described when we loved our neighbors as ourselves. In the last few years my optimism waned as I became distracted by the chaos and celebration of brash, idolatrous pride and ego. But we have glass and wood and nails, and there’s nothing stopping us from building a better society, except our fear.. And as FDR said, “fear itself” is the only thing we have to fear. So, let’s build, with our eyes on a future even grander than what our ancestors constructed.
So how do we do that? We keep loving those who don’t see what we see in our “leaders”, celebrating the things that make us all human, neighbors, and family. We breathe deeply, sip our coffee, and savor the things in life that bring joy. We acknowledge the ways we fail, say we’re sorry when we do, and be truth tellers, not bending facts for favor. And we boldly vote for “a more perfect union”, regardless of intimidation or obstacles, we vote. Our ancestors did not claw, die and scramble for freedom, only for us to squander it. This is our legacy, and it’s our duty to uphold it.
