A Practical Guide for Getting by While Rome Burns
Another morning and once again my heart is heavy with the news of the day. For the last twenty four hours our collective news feeds have been inundated with videos, pictures, and stories of a literal standoff between a group of youths and a group of Native people. This all took place at the feet of one of our most monolithic symbols of American pride; The Lincoln Memorial.
I got very much caught up in this story, and quite frankly, after spending way too much time digesting it, I've come to the personal conclusion that absolutely nobody in this situation acted with very much decorum or respect for one another. If one of those groups grants the other the benefit of the doubt, that situation doesn't get to that level of fervor. I'm not writing this morning to discuss the details of this event, but rather to ruminate on how very typical the reality of a lot of folks acting very badly has become our norm.
As a student of history, I know that time is cyclical. Just this young nation has gone through many cycles of prosperity and good feeling and many cycles of distress, distrust, and anger. It seems that we can count on this reality to flip almost every other generation. However, the fact that the age of ire we find ourselves in could have almost been predicted by an astute student of history doesn't make it any easier to survive.
I keep finding myself coming around to the question of how to act and respond in resistance to the culture of division. I scroll my social media feed and almost daily I see folks I love and respect saying horrible ugly things about people that believe the way I do. I ALSO see folks that have beliefs similar to mine saying horrible ugly things about folks that have different political beliefs. In my very soul, I believe that most people come to their belief system through their experiences on this planet. They are all so very unique and so very personal. So, if I set aside ideologies that are clearly racist, violent, and disgusting, and I am left with ideologies born to each person through their unique experiences, how can I be so very smug as to disrespect those feelings? How do I find commonality that overcomes distrust of "the others"?
Fast forward to this morning.. I was fixing some breakfast earlier thinking these big, burdening thoughts when I heard something odd on my porch. I chalked it up, at first, to the wind blowing around the snow and various brick a brack on the porch. However, I kept hearing it and finally opened the door to the sub zero temperatures to see what I could see.
What I saw was my neighbor sweeping my porch. I know just a few things about this man. I know he's a local principal (not in Boone County and not at Cov Cath). I know he loves basketball, and I know he's originally from Eastern Kentucky, and he has a small dog that he pampers to no end. After five years of being neighbors, that's about all I've learned of him, and that information has been gleaned from just a few "howdy neighbor" conversations we've had in passing. If I had to guess, I'd say he knows just about the same amount about mom and me.
Despite the very casual knowledge of one another, here was this man working very hard to clear a path for us in absolutely brutal conditions. Why was he doing it? I can't claim to know his ultimate motivations, but I can guess that he probably assumed it would make our lives a little easier. He probably assumed it was just a nice thing to do for someone in the sphere of his existence. I assume he probably did it because at our core and despite all the ugliness of humanity there is good in everyone.
There is kindness and grace in every soul we have the pleasure of encountering. Even if it's just the inconvenience of six inches of snow on our porches, we all have commonality. Every life has a story and every story is worth knowing and respecting. For everything we don't have in common... for every ideology that separates us... for every way in which we fundamentally and adamantly disagree with our neighbor, we have equally as important things in common.
We share this crazy blue planet for such a short time. We make a trip around the sun seventy five or eighty times tops, and that's if we're lucky. Friends, we have got to stop spending so much of that time devoting ire to our neighbors.
Why are we wasting so much of our time creating lists of flaws? The world is in dire straits, right now. I make no claim otherwise. I'm terrified for our future. I really am, but I'm not the first person to feel this way and neither are you. We will rise again. We always do. What will be left of our souls when we do rise remains to be seen.
I got very much caught up in this story, and quite frankly, after spending way too much time digesting it, I've come to the personal conclusion that absolutely nobody in this situation acted with very much decorum or respect for one another. If one of those groups grants the other the benefit of the doubt, that situation doesn't get to that level of fervor. I'm not writing this morning to discuss the details of this event, but rather to ruminate on how very typical the reality of a lot of folks acting very badly has become our norm.
As a student of history, I know that time is cyclical. Just this young nation has gone through many cycles of prosperity and good feeling and many cycles of distress, distrust, and anger. It seems that we can count on this reality to flip almost every other generation. However, the fact that the age of ire we find ourselves in could have almost been predicted by an astute student of history doesn't make it any easier to survive.
I keep finding myself coming around to the question of how to act and respond in resistance to the culture of division. I scroll my social media feed and almost daily I see folks I love and respect saying horrible ugly things about people that believe the way I do. I ALSO see folks that have beliefs similar to mine saying horrible ugly things about folks that have different political beliefs. In my very soul, I believe that most people come to their belief system through their experiences on this planet. They are all so very unique and so very personal. So, if I set aside ideologies that are clearly racist, violent, and disgusting, and I am left with ideologies born to each person through their unique experiences, how can I be so very smug as to disrespect those feelings? How do I find commonality that overcomes distrust of "the others"?
Fast forward to this morning.. I was fixing some breakfast earlier thinking these big, burdening thoughts when I heard something odd on my porch. I chalked it up, at first, to the wind blowing around the snow and various brick a brack on the porch. However, I kept hearing it and finally opened the door to the sub zero temperatures to see what I could see.
What I saw was my neighbor sweeping my porch. I know just a few things about this man. I know he's a local principal (not in Boone County and not at Cov Cath). I know he loves basketball, and I know he's originally from Eastern Kentucky, and he has a small dog that he pampers to no end. After five years of being neighbors, that's about all I've learned of him, and that information has been gleaned from just a few "howdy neighbor" conversations we've had in passing. If I had to guess, I'd say he knows just about the same amount about mom and me.
Despite the very casual knowledge of one another, here was this man working very hard to clear a path for us in absolutely brutal conditions. Why was he doing it? I can't claim to know his ultimate motivations, but I can guess that he probably assumed it would make our lives a little easier. He probably assumed it was just a nice thing to do for someone in the sphere of his existence. I assume he probably did it because at our core and despite all the ugliness of humanity there is good in everyone.
There is kindness and grace in every soul we have the pleasure of encountering. Even if it's just the inconvenience of six inches of snow on our porches, we all have commonality. Every life has a story and every story is worth knowing and respecting. For everything we don't have in common... for every ideology that separates us... for every way in which we fundamentally and adamantly disagree with our neighbor, we have equally as important things in common.
We share this crazy blue planet for such a short time. We make a trip around the sun seventy five or eighty times tops, and that's if we're lucky. Friends, we have got to stop spending so much of that time devoting ire to our neighbors.
Why are we wasting so much of our time creating lists of flaws? The world is in dire straits, right now. I make no claim otherwise. I'm terrified for our future. I really am, but I'm not the first person to feel this way and neither are you. We will rise again. We always do. What will be left of our souls when we do rise remains to be seen.
Comments
Post a Comment