January 6, 2021

The Creative Way

January 6, 2021       

Over my long life I have learned about or witnessed many dark nights and days of infamy: Pearl Harbor, both World Wars, the Holocaust, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the assassination of MLK, Jr, the assassination of JFK, the killing of Robert Kennedy, the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, the fall of the Twin Towers, and the murder of George Floyd. Jr.  But I never thought I would witness a dark night so fraught with infamy as the recent storming of the United States Capital by a mob of citizens who were encouraged to do so by a sitting President of the United States.

                  “The blind man who falls will not get up alone in his blindness

                  and even if he does, he will take the wrong road.” – St. John of the Cross

Many of us have taken the wrong road, and in our blindness refuse to acknowledge that there can be no compromise between Truth and Falsehood. We ae blinded by our illusions of power and privilege, and as a result have no way of seeing the wave after wave of human suffering, degradation, and poverty that keep washing up on the shores of our indifference.  And in this mindless state of disregard, we descend ever deeper into the dark night of our fall, with no way to see the light of truth that shines in our darkness.  

               “We rarely find people who achieve great things without first going 

                  astray.”                                                                   – Meister Eckhart

Both political parties in the United States are essentially religious organizations without a theocracy, and they both have gone astray.  Like all religions from time immemorial they have devolved into a fundamentalism that closes doors, builds walls, and requires a manifesto of party adherence before anyone is admitted.  It’s for this reason that the battles that take place in the US Congress are essentially religious wars, and both parties have indeed gone astray. The urgent transformative thing that now needs to be done, is for the doors to open and the walls come down so that mindful and compassionate citizens of the United States can come together and solve problems that cry out for a compassionate resolution.  

                  “All shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.”  Julian of Norwich

On the morning after the deadly storming of the United States Capital, I went out to pick up  the morning newspaper.  The first faint light of the new day was just beginning to show in the receding dark.  I noticed that on the eastern horizon the morning star was shining in the last vestige of one of the darkest nights in American history.  I looked at it with wonder and renewed hope. And I realized that this same bright star of hope shines as well in whatever darkness happens to envelope us – be it the dark night of the soul, or some other dark night.  This bright shining light is always there to guide us into the longed-for path of hope.  And if we are graced to see it, then we will indeed begin to believe that “All shall be well.”