Taking a Step Back…

Sometimes it is worth taking a step back to see what’s really going on, and perhaps even get a glimpse at what might be a solution.

There is so much anger in the land, and, for that matter, around the world. Clearly, the pandemic is a problem. Whether you’re the type who hunkers down or prefers to tough it out, a pandemic will turn your life upside down. 

Everything, literally, is upended. Vacations, gatherings, jobs, medical decisions, and much, much more get delayed, postponed or stopped.  It affects every decision we make together as a family, a community and as a nation.  And so we slip into chaos thinking.  

Take another step back. You will start seeing a longer arc of decisions, populated with choices whose consequences were never intended. For instance, nobody advocating for gun rights ever thought a young 17 year old would seize his father’s military style gun and throw himself into a fraught situation where killing two fellow human beings was the only perceived way to defend himself. 

Take yet another step back from the edge of the precipice.  The same arc extends into history, only to reveal a national story that could not have been foretold. 

Did we really mean to become a nation at war for more than seventy years? At the beginning of World War II, did we really mean to send our boys, and eventually our girls too, to fight wars around the world from Korea and Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan?

Think of the men and women we lost. Think of the treasury we spent to arm our soldiers, to buy our allies, and to impose our will along the edges of our empire, instead of building roads and creating jobs at home. As we boasted Pax Americana, did we think of all the unhappy people who would come home angry, resentful and dispossessed, with few prospects? 

Assuredly not. Every step along the way, we make the best decision we can, convinced this will be the last time. We choose to go forward in the hope of making things better. 

But here is the problem. The more we fight among ourselves over portentous choices, the more likely these fateful decisions will cost us dearly at home. 

Disunion is costly in every respect. Even a good decision taken in the midst of discord suffers, only to disappoint in the end.  Each of us loses track of the bigger story, focusing on making selfish choices among lesser options. 

Of course everybody likes the idea of having dependable healthcare for their children, their spouse and themselves. That would be fantastic to have that whole aspect of our lives taken care of for good. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we did not have to worry about the education of our children? Wouldn’t it be good to have unemployment insurance in case we lost our jobs? Would it be helpful if we did not have enemies to contend with? Of course it would. 

But, none of that is possible when we end up at each other’s throat, trying to stop each other’s choices out of fear that it will put us all in danger. 

At some point, we will exhaust ourselves in the strife that never seems to end. When it does, and it will, we might try to talk it through together. Until then, though, we are at the mercy of those who would profit from our strife, from our fears and, yes, from all the stress we create for ourselves. 

Take another step back, and it becomes obvious we are much more creative when we are at our best, working together to solve problems.

Here’s wishing you all a happy holiday season!