Recovery

Friends,

I look forward to the Thanksgiving commemoration next week as a time of familial and familiar friendships -- a respite from this month’s election fall out  and a disappointing and upsetting presidential election and recovery from a major wind storm. Thanksgiving (or what my granddaughter calls “Friendsgiving”) can provide the opportunity for recollecting all our blessings even amidst what is also a very troubling time. In the medium of reunion and fellowship may we find renewal and deep gratitude for the wonder and grand privilege life provides for us. 

The “bomb cyclone storm” that swept through my backyard from before bedtime to late into the morning last week allowed nature to provide an apt metaphor for many of my feelings about life in general this past month. The howl of the winds and the pelting of the rain were accompanied by flickering lights and the frightening cracking and crunching of presumed strong limbs that thumped down on our roof and deck as I tried to sleep. Although the storm was widely predicted, its actual arrival was still quite stunning, foreboding and overpowering. We found ourselves feeling we were in the dark of the night only able to wait until the storm subsided before we could even begin to survey the damage. And as I lay abed that night I kept thinking about the greater unknown level of the ominous threat haunting me outside in the darkness and what it might mean for the future. I could only hope for minimal damage and the expectation of eventual recovery. 

To continue stretching my natural disaster metaphor a bit further, the day after our “bomb cyclone storm” we found even the strongest of trees had lost large branches and their basic, presumed integrity was compromised. Some trees fell completely. The loss of electrical power was a reminder of vulnerable dependencies and literal powerlessness. As devastating as a “bomb cyclone storm” may be, however, I think of the even greater impact of the natural disasters of hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanoes and flooding, and, most tragically, warfare, that destroy whole regions with long term devastation that may or may not revive and  likely with great suffering and deprivation. The global shift toward the threat to democracy and the reality of possible autocratic rule does feel like a disaster to many and may be so. 

The point I am trying to make is that, like natural disasters, many of us may consider the past election as a political disaster. And to a certain extent it is, but, again, if I go to the lessons from the natural world I can find assurance and hope that surprising and redemptive recovery is possible.

We can be encouraged in knowing that nature has an amazing, miraculous capacity to recover and evolve from the types of disasters in the natural world, as noted above.  In that natural resiliency I can find assurance and hope that surprising and redemptive recovery is possible.. The biological term refugia, for example, refers to "the phenomenal ability of life forms such as seeds to remain in relatively unaltered, relic states for long periods of times (such as in glaciation or Mt. St. Helen’s volcanic ash) until a new dispersion and speciation may take place after climatic readjustment.” And I believe the sweep of history has shown that despite desperate periods of loss and destruction human civilizations do again recover albeit in revised form. (The word “recover” itself is defined as "being able to become completely well again after being damaged or having problems.”) 

In spite of all we try to predict and prevent disastrous harm in our lives, something larger, something beyond our control, always looms as the final arbiter of how ultimately safe and protected we may ever be. The hows and whys of our fate is the storied literature and philosophy inquiry of the ages, of course. And I want to believe the same powerful reality of destruction and change contains an equally powerful ability for refugia -- for recovery -- and with the expectation that the ultimate result of recovery may lead to ever greater resiliency and viability to continue to support and enhance the life forms that have recently been disrupted and destroyed.

It is no small source of thanksgiving that nature and the great lessons of history give us hope amidst the destruction of storms and presumed safe political structures of our lives.

Peace,
Tom