A Better Way
It was a dark and stormy night. Truly. A porch chair blew into the yard. The wind made unholy noises. The house creaked and moaned. It was a disconcerting evening since the house is clad in stone and has always felt sound and sturdy. I longed for a wind gauge, but I’ve long since given up on electronic weather stations. And this all happened in advance of the red and yellow on the radar that said, here comes the rain. In the end, I trusted the construction of the house, and found sleep. And when I woke, there was rain, and the house still stood.
In much the same way, I’m trusting the construction of our country to withstand the current political storm. It feels as though the big house is creaking and moaning in a bully wind of retribution, greed, mistrust, and name calling. And oddly enough there are probably people who don’t think there’s a storm in the country. Because we’re long past the days of the morning paper and the five o’clock news. These days it’s all about the algorithms, and they know what we want, and do their best to give it to us. And some simply prefer to look the other way.
I wish I knew how to chart a course out of what I see as our current difficulties. But I’m just going to have to trust in the courts, the rule of law, and what I see as the intrinsic goodness of people. Although the latter will need to be coupled with courage. Because it’s really hard to step back and admit that the people you trusted might not be acting in good faith, that the earth might not be the center of the universe, or that the thing you thought you wanted was a mistake. In the end, I hope kindness and consideration will prevail. It just feels a better way to live.