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David Mitchell
"Getting through"
Mike's article and Tim's veiled reference to what we have all just "come through" are well timed for this momentuous but awkward day. I happen to be among those who feel torn (but from both parties). I am personally divided. I repeatedly asked friends this question over the past year, "Is this actually the best two people we've got - seriously?" The greatest country on earth and this is the best we can do? Wow!
So here we are - divided. Full of anger, anxiety and distrust. Golly, how are we ever going to get through this?
Think back just a bit. We ourselves were once in the thick of divisive chaos - Vietnam, Civil Rights, South Africa, the Berlin Wall, Northern Ireland, Prague Spring, and the 2nd Vatican Council. We've been horrified by 911, race riots, Lebanon bombings, the Texas Tower shooter, Cuban missiles, the uprising in Budapest, and "Jonestown". And we ALL cried as we watched a little tiny boy salute his father's casket as it rolled by on a horse drawn caisson. How were we ever going to get through that?
I recall watching the governor (edited - thanks to Fred) standing in the doorway at Ole Miss. And greyhound buses gutted by fire. How on earth......? Weren't we better than that?
Before that, our parents, were drawn into a World War that engulfed much of the globe. Dad was drafted as a 32 year old Doctor, husband and father of two little girls, and had to live away from them for two years - as a B-29 flight surgeon in India, China, and finally the Island of Tinian. And as children themselves, our parents lived thorugh a previous horrific war, a Great Depression, and an almost completely forgotten world-wide epidemic of influenza. My mother spoke of returning to her 2nd grade class after a holiday break and learning that a quarter of her classmates were dead. How did they ever...........?
Before that there were other even greater economic depressons, with gawd-awful labor riots. More divicivness. And we once drew sides, separated ourselves from one another, and waited until 660,000 men had been slaughtered before one side gave in and we were re-united (sort of). How DID we ever get through that?
Division? We once had a member of the U.S. Senate draw a loaded pistol on one of his colleagues on the floor of the Senate. And we actually used to practice the "art" of dueling! And remember, women and slaves held no rights. How could we have .............?
Even the framers of our constitution were deeply divided. Hamilton and Jefferson had two entirely differing ideas of how to do this. Franklin and Adams had to mediate and quell numerous arguments. Southerners had to make concessions (at least for a while). They fought and argued trough the July heat of Philladelphia, but finally came up with this crazy, radical, but magnificent document that set our course as a nation. A nation of pluralities of beliefs, backgrounds, and desires.
Remarkably, Thomas Jefferson even hired professsional slanderers to discredit his own (once) dear friend John Adams to win the Presidency. How did they ever get through that ?
Well, apparantly they did. I believe they began to write to one another again late in life and made some sort of ammends. They both died friends on the very same July 4th 1826 (Jefferson 5 hours before the older Adams). It is said that two of the relay express riders carrying each party's sad news to the other may have passed each other somewhere on that ride.
But now how will we ever get through this? Here are two thoughts.
First, we recall and remember with gratitude the men who risked everything they had to defy the King of England so that we might have a "more perfect union" (and a peaceful transition). We can all be more aware - we can all be more vigilant - and we can all be more respectful.
Second, We can live like we are actually aware that we have a Creator who is so cazy in love with each of us that we can bask in that love and reflect his Joy, and His Light in our own little dark corner of the world. To quote a few lines I have grown to enjoy from the book of John, chapter 16, verses 32- 33: " But the time is coming - indeed it is here now - when you will be scattered, each one going his own way, leaving me alone. Yet I am not alone because the Father is with me. I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world." (from an NLT translation)
p.s. I am so damn lucky to have been in a class of some,,, what, 275 goofy teenagers - children of the 50's and 60's. Howdy Dooddie, Elvis, Moon landings, Jets Baseball games, WCOL, the Beatles, Ozzie & Harriet (and Ricky), OSU games on the radio, the Mouseketeer Cclub, Ed Sullivan, Motown records, Martin and Lewis, "Big Bev" drive-ins, football nights at North High School, makin' out with a girl in your mom's convertible, cheating with Keith Groff in the back row of Biology class, and girls like Janie and Clare to bring it all back every 5 years.
How could we EVER have gotten through this without them? (and without Fred?)
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