Look Away, at Least for a Moment
The astounding spectacle of destruction holds my gaze day in and out.
Without apparent compunction, they lie and distort in order to lever division into power — ugly, naked aggression, abandoning what they claim to represent. No norm matters. Honor and honesty left aside, explained away in the service of a litany of destructive behavior that feeds the invented narratives of harm and risk that manipulate a political base. The destruction is compelling, as is a train wreck in slow motion; difficult to turn away. But this is more perverse for its intentionality. And in recent years it once again rings the globe more and more.
Consuming the news becomes my constant, necessary compulsion. Distraught my normal frame of mind.
But, there are other things I should be doing; the normal things of life. Unless I look away — at least for some time — I will not get them done. But if I look away what harm will I miss, what action won’t I know to respond to, what chapter in the story will I be ignorant of, what final culpability may I share for the evisceration of the world I thought we were building?
In flying there is a rule — ignored at your peril — “fly the aircraft first.” No matter the emergency or distraction, first keep the plane under control. If you don’t, ultimately, nothing else matters however immediate, dramatic…
