Thursday, November 7, 2024
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
The day after
Brothers and sisters, whatever gains I had, these I have come to consider a loss because of Christ, because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
Reflecting on the election on the day after the day after, from my white male privileged point of view, I imagine Donald Trump asleep at last, resting on the hard solid fact of his victory. I imagine Kamala Harris asleep as well, wondering when the  hardest, highest glass ceiling will be broken by a woman becoming president, since it will not be her. She knows she has done what she can to make that happen. Eventually.
I don’t suppose either of them can sleep for long. There is just too much to do.
Many around me are afraid and heartbroken. I am too. Others are hopeful and optimistic, and at random moments of the day I feel those things too. (It’s the job of enneagram sevens to be fascinated by everything!)
But I expect Trump’s angry megalomania to rise up and ruin things for many in the next few years, even as he accomplishes some other positive things (I hope). Thinking this way, I feel sad and powerless. In Margaret’s and my personal “privilege,” we might not be personally affected so much by what happens next. But there is great, eternal truth in those famous words from John Donne’s sermon (and Hemingway’s novel):
No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thine own
Or of thine friend’s were.
Each man’s death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.
Recently Ron Rolheiser made an important point about success and intelligence, at least one of which Donald Trump has plenty of. Fr. Ron said that without empathy, neither success nor intelligence will lead to better things in leaders, for their followers, for the world.
What’s the difference between intelligence and wisdom? Wisdom is intelligence that’s colored by understanding (which, parsed to its root, means infused with empathy). In the end, what makes for wisdom is intelligence informed by empathy, and intelligence that grasps, with sympathy, the complexity of others and the world.
Learning, to be truly helpful, must be matched by an equal growth in empathy. When this isn’t happening, then growth in intelligence is invariably one-sided and, while perhaps providing something for the community, will always lack the kind of understanding that can help bind the community together and help us better understand ourselves and our world.
When intelligence is not informed by empathy, what it produces will generally not contribute to the common good. Without a concomitant empathy, intelligence invariably becomes arrogant and condescending. True learning, on the other hand, is humble, self-effacing, and empathic. When we develop ourselves intellectually, without sufficient empathy, our talents invariably become causes for envy rather than gifts for community.
One of my friends wore a red shirt to work today; he works in a blue shirt company and said he was quietly enjoying his morning. I have been caught by the headlines on my phone, mostly from the blue shirt folks.
Midnight in America
America Makes a Perilous Choice
The morning after, the sun comes up (I did read this one, by Garrison Keillor, who recently wrote Cheerfulness, A Memoir)
Trump Triumphs
Hope in a time of darkness (from NCR – National Catholic Register)
This is America. For now.
Trump sends shock waves around the world as he is elected US president
… shatters blue wall
… stunning political comeback
… resounding victory
America moves into uncharted waters
Donald Trump’s revenge
How he did it – again
When news is bad (I read this one too … “take seriously your grief, it is love stripped bare. Let it flow through you … you do not know the end of grace … stay tender”)
The Unifying Love of God
Prayer, Politics and God’s Love
Clarence Heller points out a salient fact, important every day and especially today for Margaret and I:
If something occurs so often that we fail to even notice,
can it not still be miraculous?
We say what a miracle life is when we witness a birth,
but the miracle of life occurs each time we breathe,
each time there is thought,
each time a heart beats,
each time love brings someone to tears,
each time a tiny cut heals
or a broken bone mends,
each time a bird flies
or a spring peeper rejoices so loudly,
and each time a firefly lights.
Yes, life is the miracle love brings forth.
There is much more to life in God’s kingdom than either winning or losing. I do not want to ever forget that God is good all the time.
(Philippians 3, Psalm 105, Matthew 11, Luke 15)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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