Passing Through

Seems like it was just last week when cheered-on insurrectionists took charge of the Capitol Building. For those of us watching in real time, it was especially disturbing. How far were the invaders willing to go? Who would be hurt in the process? And where are the voices that could make it stop? 

Nearly a year later, January 6 remains a scar if not a wound on our national psyche. Things like that don’t happen in a country that prides itself on peaceful transfers of power. How are we to put that day in its proper context, yet refuse to surrender hope? 

The long, rich tradition we call liberal religion is instructive in times like these – not because we enter heady debates about “the state of the union” – but because (at our best) our efforts are not overly focused on outcomes. 

Consider, we don’t remember Julia Ward Howe because suffrage became the law of the land in her lifetime, but because she never lost hope in equality. Same with Dorthea Dix and her quest for humane treatment of persons living with mental illness. Her capacity for hope far exceeded the many disappointments she faced along the way. 

The point? Events like January 6 lose their power when we’re realistic, even defeated in the moment…then get right back to the work before us. Win, lose or draw. 

As you and I anticipate the fears and jeers that undoubtedly await us in 2022, let’s remember we’re part of a religious clan that does not truck with final despair and pity. There’s just too much to be done. 

Blessings for the new year, 

Don