Teach Them To Long For the Endless Immensity of the Sea
Interesting and unwieldy way of doing business in our country, isn’t it, these four or eight or two year (congressional) cycles where one guy comes in, does some stuff half of America is pleased with, the next guy erases and replaces (backspace, delete) some of that, then does his own stuff which makes the other half of the people happy.
Listening to one of my favorite Pandora stations the other day, I heard Bob Dylan singing
And don’t speak too soon
For the wheel’s still in spin
And there is no telling who
That it’s namin’
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a changing
It’s like we’re tacking to starb’d then to port, over and over, unceasingly, but in what direction? Do we even have have a destination?
I looked up some of what I wrote on the day after the 2016 election.
“I’m in this notebook early, eschewing any contact with the New York Times or NPR, in order to stay away from post-mortems and just stay in my private and meditative space. I may do that for a few days. I think a moratorium will do me good. I can spend more time dwelling on the great things and people in my life.
I’m aware right now that there are those I love, friends and family, numbered among millions of others, who are extremely happy right now and think the ship of state has been set a-right.
Millions of others feel like they’re sharing life on the Pequod, with a demented and vengeful Ahab soon to be at the helm.
That is real life in our Republic.
I look out my window this morning and notice how it doesn’t look any different. The coffee tastes the same, as does my oatmeal, the house is warm, I’m healthy, all systems go, right here right now. I’m grateful that an early thought was ‘What’s great about this?’ and to see where that leads and to what space it broadens out.
A man I love has been in near-despair about it and nothing I had to say made a difference. If it did, I missed it. I am not a practicing political columnist and I’m unclear about what value my opinions even have anyway. They’re just opinions.
I’m on much firmer ground when I keep at my gratitude work, in my own way, even when it might seem ridiculous to look for some good in what are perceived as terrible situations. The purpose of this blog is not to provide answers.”
America’s still cool, I thought, no matter who’s in office.
Just read Whitman, you’ll see.
I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear…
Or Emma Lazarus. You’ll remember
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…
Looks to me, four years later, like it’s not in our country’s genetic destiny to have a time when everyone’s happy and we’re on the same page, with all due respect the new president-elect and his vision. Some of the people, some of the time, maybe, to take Lincoln’s words wildly out of context
The pendulum will keep swinging.
Upon what can we fix our gaze?
We can keep the words of St. Exupery in mind, if our leaders can’t or won’t
If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.
If we long for that “why,” together, the “how” will be easier.
