Fall Foliage

Friends,

I have been writing my Saturday Evening Post now for over five years so I remember well how confusing and despairing the early days of Covid were. We simply could not comprehend what a world-wide, deadly siege we were facing. Although I often wrote from deep discouragements and fear during those days, I was somehow always able to appreciate the daily gifts of kindness and care that wove themselves among all our isolations. 

I find myself tonight again besieged with the overwhelming sense that I can’t even begin to make sense of this particular stretch of time, and I again feel a need to share those feelings. I have found myself, like I did during Covid, trying to deal honestly with my feelings and fears while also holding on to hope. 

In another strange fall season of such deep uncertainty and change I find that the signs of hope and assurance compete with the world of lies, destructive leadership, storms and war. As I scruff along a leaf-strewn trail I am so aware of how life depends on an often disconcerting cycle of death and renewal that fills and stirs my soul yet often also leaves me with longing for a greater ability to take it all in and be even more fully present to the whole magnificent drama of life as the fallen leaves remind me that life is so fleeting. For me, and perhaps others, fall is a poignant season of both leaving and homecoming, a time of memories and introspection that question, inform and foster a sense of deeper meaning and purpose in our lives.

The current profoundly troubling reality in this historic moment is that so much defies the search for meaning that connects us with our most trusted experience and expectations. It is nearly impossible to understand why anyone would create lies that endanger flood victims, starve children and support decisions that prolong inhumane warfare. By any basic moral measure of decency and compassion I find these actions as incomprehensible as they are reprehensible. So our bodies, souls and minds struggle with the traditional options we face during times of dire threats and an historic crisis point. As much as I want to believe otherwise, I am deeply concerned right now about the immediate and long term future of our country and our personal freedoms and welfare. 

In response to our anxieties and concerns I want to encourage us to try to cope with our anxieties by finding ways to huddle with our various communities for positive support, as opposed to privately harboring only the worst of our fears.  

My own personal emotional, philosophical and spiritual strategy, as I am trying to confront my fears, is roughly three- fold: 

I have a profound and abiding faith that the individual and communal Spirit in us will empower our struggles to take care of one another with compassion and kindness, whether within our families or communities or national government. Together we can and will ultimately make the necessary changes to provide for our safety and welfare.  We can and we will overcome the injustices and oppression that may come upon us, and we will use this historical moment to reinforce our pledges to support one another and the common good, whatever level of support or obstacles there are.

We can take courage that one of the gifts of historical crisis is to provide the impetus for major, fundamental change, and perhaps that is what may await us..

And, finally, as much as I dread the threat of the terror of war, climate crises, and oppressive, autocratic leadership, especially on the poor and vulnerable - and more especially on mothers and their children - I also have a profound faith I can trust that ultimately the great power love and truth will triumph over all the destruction and hate. I consider my faith in the ultimate power of love to be my ultimate truth as well.

Whether these reflections bring anyone solace and hope, I cannot know. But similar statements of faith and resilience have given rise to assurances over millennia that love and justice do ultimately triumph. The falling leaves can always remind us that they will nourish the soil to allow new leaves to replace them and draw new life into a rebirth of springtime. May it be so for humanity as well.

Peace,
Tom

Post Script
I need to add a post script regarding the crisis now facing the nation following the assassination of Charlie Kirk. All assassinations are a denial of nonviolence and will likely result in furthering festering political divisions, vengeance and more violence. I remember well the venting of violent anger when MLK, Jr, was assassinated. Can this tragedy ultimately result in governmental leadership and the American people  acknowledging and addressing the intolerable level of armed and verbal violence being fomented in this nation?  What are we as a nation willing to tolerate?