In A River of Light
Rivers of light poured from the sky, slanting through the branches of oak trees festooned with moss and mistletoe, and sometimes a stand of yellow-leafed sycamores brightly announced it was autumn, and I stopped my car and held my breath in wonder.
The election draws near, and the woes of the world rage on, and yet it felt utterly delicious to pause in this misty realm, suspended in awe, yielding to the loveliness of the moment, which is as real as all the rest. Let us trust in the beauty of the world that is trying so hard to continue, and recognize what sustains us. Let us trust in what is best within ourselves and one another.
The extent of his depravity and creepiness defies belief ––you know who I’m talking about––and yet his cult is steadfast, and this somehow is the choice of what was once the GOP. But there is too much at stake, and we will not whimper away. We are many, and we are strong, and we stand in the light.
We must avoid cynicism, at all costs; it is toxic, and it seems to be loitering smugly everywhere, anticipating and manifesting what is ugly and weak, a capitulation confused with cleverness. As Maria Popova has written, “There is nothing more difficult yet more gratifying in our society than living with sincerity and acting from a place of largehearted, constructive, rational faith in the human spirit, continually bending toward growth and betterment. This remains the most potent antidote to cynicism. Today, especially, it is an act of courage and resistance.”
Yes, today especially.
I have always been fond of a Thanksgiving poem by Edna St. Vincent Milllay that concludes with these lines:
From the apprehensive present, from a future packed
With unknown dangers, monstrous, terrible and new—
Let us turn for comfort to this simple fact:
We have been in trouble before . . . and we came through.
Anything can still happen, even the most yearned-for outcomes. Think of hope as an active verb, a vast arena for possibility, and when fueled by love, an inexorable force, a river of light.