Cloud Cover

Friends,

This has been a typical late fall day in the Pacific Northwest. A persistent cloud cover this morning created a sense of being closed in and tentative about how to approach the day. The reality is that there will just be days and seasons here when we need to accept the overcast. As the day wore on, however, a  brief and comforting appearance of the sun did dry our our afternoon world. I have been aware all day that a similar spirit of apprehension and moments of assurance have hung over me as I face into the weekend and the anticipation of the uncertainty of next week’s election. 

The professional election prognosticators have essentially given up any meaningful attempt to predict the outcome of the vote. We now must simply accept our fogged in world in spite of all the efforts to apply various forms of data analysis and predictions. So in this anticipatory status we are left with finding our own way in and through how we are preparing ourselves for what will evolve in the coming days. 

For me, I consider this uncertain and anxious time as kind of a trust walk. I primarily am trusting that the American people, as a whole, will not succumb to the temptation to believe our nation’s survival is dependent on a forceful, powerful form of dictatorship - particularly from someone and his supporters who signal little or no respect for human dignity and human rights. This in contrast to our democratic form of government that provides, at least ideally, a check and balance where we have agency in determining public policy and welfare. And I am also trusting, by default, that whatever the outcome of the election our republic can and will survive, albeit through a difficult recovery process when many will suffer from significant neglect and harm. 

Whatever the results of the election, the huge existential problems of our nation and the world will continue to demand critical attention. We simply must address the threats of climate change, for example. Income and wealth disparity cannot be tolerated for long. We will need to learn and apply nonviolent techniques in address domestic and regional violence in all its forms and extend that out to avoiding endless wars and the threat of nuclear annihilation. We need to seriously ask how we are going to address major shifts in population as a result of war, oppression, and famine and associated racism. Although some part of these problems may be best handled through autocratic decree in the short run, in the long run of history our planetary survival will utterly depend on our capacity for international, intercontinental cooperation based on mutual respect and assistance. 

And, regardless of the election, I find it reassuring that much of the essential national and international governmental infrastructure necessary to address our global crises is already in place although, granted, they need to be protected in addition to receiving critical revision and established commitment. The concept and reality of a United Nations and an International Criminal Court, for example, provide a critical means of preventing war and preventing violent conflict. If the United States in particular, followed by other powerful, nuclear armed nations, would endeavor to revise and honor these two institutions alone, it would be a gigantic step toward world peace. And I can envision the UN instigating and approving efforts at international cooperation to establish laws that would curb the unconscionable amount of money wasted on arm sales and instead specify even part of those savings to feed the world and provide essential life support for children through UNICEF. 

My point is that even in this time when we may feel discouraged and subject to ominous threatening clouds of anxiety and despair, I truly believe we also have reason to believe there is hope in the creativity and spiritual integrity of the human spirit that can build on the best of the arc of history tending toward peace and justice. I will hold that in my vision and prayers for whatever the outcome of the election.

Peace,
Tom