Society

There’s been a major effort to divide our country, lately. Right now, there’s a movie out called “Civil War,” and it suggests what might be involved in a second tragic attempt at shredding our union. I imagine that you’ve seen, as I have, pundits proclaiming the worst interpretations of candidates’ actions, choices, phrases, and even tics. Most of what I see and hear, I can tell, is trying to lead me into knowing who I am against and why. My little four-year-old granddaughter wandered into a room where adults were watching a movie, an animated feature she assumed was a cartoon like those she watches, but, this one was about two communities attacking each other. When she was called out of it by her mother, she told her mom, “It hurt my heart.” That’s a pretty good description of how I feel watching the news media’s talk shows, where a group collaborates to debase the other side. They both talk in the same manner, using similar words and attitudes of disgust. The only difference is the person or side on which they focus. I watch them both because I want to understand, but it hurts my heart. Recently, I came upon a story of two candidates, up in Vermont, who were each knocking, literally, on every door they could seeking votes for a state house seat. They held debates to voice their different points of view, but then, at the end of each debate, they pushed back the tables, pulled out a cello and a guitar, respectively, and played a duet. They played a song on living together in society. It shocked the news reporters, as well as the people attending the debate. That warms my heart. I learned that people in Vermont began to plant signs for both candidates on their lawns. That speaks to me of the ache human beings have to work together, to enjoy community, to live in a society that wants loving others to be our priority. It will be so, so important for us to put our whole selves into enjoying each other as we move into the future. We are the body of Christ and we can live out what people around us are aching to find. Blessings, Geoff