Always Something

In Sarah, Plain and Tall,  Jacob, a widower with two young children, places an advertisement in the newspaper for a wife.  He receives a reply from a woman from Maine, who accepts to come to the American prairies for a month to see how things are before she makes a commitment.  Maggie, a neighbour originally from Tennessee who has married the man to whose advertisement she had herself responded, asks Sarah,  "'You are lonely, yes?'"  Maggie continues, "'I miss the hills of Tennessee sometimes.'"  When Sarah replies that she misses the sea, Maggie adds, "'There are always things to miss.'"

In that context, . . .

There’s always something to miss.

To treasure.

To reject.

To admire.

To envy.

To trust.

To question.

To risk.

To distrust.

To embrace.

To avoid.

To appreciate.

To resent.

To remember.

To forget.

To forgive.

To begrudge.

To cultivate.

To ignore.

To support.

To neglect.

To accomplish.

To regret.

To celebrate.

To mourn.

To love.

To grieve.

To cling to.

To let go of.

To acquire.

To discard.

To express.

To conceal.

To bless.

No matter where we are.

No matter what we might already have.

Dawn

The vision and its pathway, a fugue in two parts, come to me as I lead music ministry during Advent.   The vision?  Endlesss bliss and the triumph of truth.  The pathway?  Shine out and sing.  All right there, hidden in plain sight, in hymns I’ve sung dozens of times.

I begin the fourth verse of the hymn at the Preparation of the Gifts, "The King Shall Come When Morning Dawns" (Text John Brownlee).  

"And let the endless bliss begin,

By weary saints foretold,

When right shall triumph over wrong,

And truth shall be extolled. " 

I can’t identify with "saints," but "weary", I can relate to.    In what must resemble an out of body experience, my mind lasers in on "And truth shall be extolled."   In an era that’s cavalier about facts,  those words resonate.   The rest of me, meanwhile—fingers, mouth, vocal chords, mostly—finishes playing and singing the hymn.

While the presider continues with the order of the mass, I mull over the vision of the future the hymn describes.  "Truth extolled" would indeed build bliss. During the rest of the prayers and the Preface, and even as I play the Holy Holy,  a verse of the Gathering Song (Marty Haugen, 1987, GIA Publications) filters in, the second melody in what has become a fugue for the future.  This verse proclaims action: 

"Shine out with the splendor of love,

shine with justice and righteousness. 

Sing the music your spirit has heard,

the songs of glory and light."

 

This is the pathway to the vision.   Be a light for justice; voice the essential truth you know in your heart; key in on the positive, the songs of glory and light.   In that way, endless bliss has a chance.

So what does that mean for me, then, every single day?  What can I do to keep a few embers of the potential for endless bliss glowing?  After all, I’m only one person.  When I think about it, quite a bit, it turns out.

·  Aim to discuss rather than persuade.

Enlightenment needs facts, details, opinions, plusses, downsides, as many as can be garnered and sorted, about every aspect of a subject.  For that to happen, the aim has to be discussion, not persuasion.

·  Ask questions.

Instead of a focus on the expression of my own view, I can seek to understand where others are coming from, and why they hold the opinions they do.  This means reading outside my perspective, no matter how difficult it might be.  Rations will be in order.  It means listening intently to people whose views are diametrically opposed to mine, and keying in on the ideas.  

·  Be willing to evolve.

I might even have to ask myself hard questions.  I might even have to question my thinking.  I might even have to evolve!

·  Call out downright false or, at best, misleading,  statements.

In conversation, I will not initiate  I will, however, weigh in on a disparaging political comment that’s gratuitous, inserted into a conversation out of nowhere.     False or misleading statements that seldom reference a source or any evidence at all also fall below my line.  I will not vote for politicians whose platform is constant attack, blame, criticism and fear-mongering.  They have nothing else.

·  Support forward-thinking people and projects.

I will support projects and individuals who look forward, not back.  Politicians who can build on the innovation and hard work of our ancesors  and keep traditions alive by moving forward have my vote.   Stagnation is not an option.  Neither is hearkening back to some sort of supposed golden age that has never existed.

·  Act.

Speak out.  Work for justice.

·  Park my outrage.

Lies, crassness, insults, threats, attacks, tunnel vision, the rise of the imbecile—all contribute to my own outrage.   To work for solutions, though, I can’t seethe.  I must breathe, and remain rational.   Otherwise, I can’t listen or engage in constructive dialogue.

·  Hold on to my joy.

Here’s the toughest challenge.   I’ll need both hands.  Ration cable news and talking heads.  News in print is easier to manage with equanimity.   Alternate heavy non-fiction with easier reads.  Treasure my family time.  Focus on the positive.

I’ve always believed in agency, in the power of the individual to make change, one gesture at a time.   Never in my lifetime have I felt the vision, rooted in democracy, so threatened.  Never have I felt such urgency on the pathway.  Never have I felt the dire consequence of inaction.  How appropriate—the reminder of the vision and the pathway dawned on me during Advent, the season of flow from darkness into light.