By Mike Soika
We Baby Boomers – have we left the world a better place than when we came into it? It seems like our watch on this planet has been punctuated with constant turmoil.
Growing up we had the Bay of Pigs, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the nuclear war “duck and cover” drills and air raid shelters. There were the assassinations of John and Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and Malcolm X. We fought about Viet Nam and then there was the Tet Offensive, which spurred our defeat and withdrawal from Viet Nam. We saw massive protests for Civil Rights and people pummeled in the streets and at lunch counters.
We witnessed the demise of the American middle class as labor unions atrophied, wages stagnated, towns deteriorated, and countless lives were lost to alcoholism and drug addiction.
We’ve experienced a resurgence of racism and white supremacy along with more mass shootings than any place else on earth. Ever.
Most recently we’ve seen the debasement of politics with significant attacks on our democratic systems. We are at a time when facts don’t matter, when tribe supersedes the common good and wearing a mask and getting vaccinated to save our families and our neighbors fosters political attacks. We are just beginning to understand the extent of the January 6th insurrection and the attempt to circumvent a valid presidential election through brute force, which sadly has been accompanied by nation-wide efforts to roll back voting rights.
And now – we can say that we saw both the birth of “Earth Day” and onslaught of the fierce effects of climate change such as massive wildfires, biblical flooding, and heat waves that cooked billions of shellfish in the sea.
And all of that is just off the top of my head. I’m sure I’ve missed some big (and small but significant) events.
My point is not to chronicle everything that has gone wrong during our collective time on earth, but to raise our consciousness to the possibility that we may not be done yet. The poet Dylan Thomas urges us to “ not go gentle into that good night” but rather to “rage against the dying of the light.”
I’ve been tempted to say that it is time to let someone else rage about the state of the world. I’m rather enjoying my time working on our boat, and sailing, and I’ve been especially content to hang out with our two granddaughters.
Buy I’m feeling as if there is something I need to do. There is a gentle nudge that’s just a whisper now, like the hint of wind on a glassy still lake.
I care about the big issues of the day such as voter suppression, gun control, climate change, inequality, education and stay abreast of them. But it seems to me there is something deeper we need to address. There is a wound at the heart of our people that must be healed and from there, the issues will take care of themselves.
I find it tragically ironic that the Trumpian Republicans and the Progressive Democrats both rally around the same point of view: each believes they are fighting for the very soul of America. Each fears that the future will bring catastrophic economic and cultural changes that must be stopped before they take hold.
Where does the healing begin? How do we minister to a people so encamped in their positions and so energized to protect their way of life that they see no wrong in demonizing the “other side?”
I am reminded of a quote from Julian of Norwich – a mystic from the middle ages – who wrote: “failure of love on our part is the only cause of all sorrow.”
I’ve thought about this quite a bit. There is not a single evil or issue that can’t be traced back to a failure of love.
I am struggling to find a constructive way to show how a demonstration of love can bring lasting change. Perhaps, it is as easy as Dorothy Day professes when she wrote “I don’t have the answers to solve everything. Be faithful today.”
Is this the guidance we need? Be faithful today. Show peace today. Demonstrate love today. Embrace understanding today. Now that’s something we Baby Boomers understand; Peace, Love and Understanding.
“What’s so funny about peace, love and understanding?” (1974 song written by Nick Lowe. Performed at the 2004 Vote for Change concert in Washington, D.C.)