Holding It Together: Being and Doing

Knowing of my friend’s health concerns, I asked “how are you doing?”  “I’m barely holding it together,” he responded. “It’s not the aches and pains; I’m not sleeping. I carry a dread for the future.” His insomnia was a fretting over our national trajectory and the deceits that appear to be a “new normal.” I understood. Divisive and demeaning language, dehumanizing others, greed and grifting, scapegoating, talk of retaliation and efforts to upend democratic institutions.  Mostly, my friend’s concerns were the loss of our nation’s moral center.

“Barely holding it together” – honest, sharp-edged reality. Like the patient waiting to hear that dreaded diagnosis, or the father learning of an active shooter at his child’s school, or the undocumented mother who, after years working in a menial job and proudly sending her children off to college, who now fears deportations. After the 2024 election we live at the edges of hope and dread.

My first U.S. Presidential vote was in 1968. Fifteen elections later, my politics have changed, but not my trust in our future. That is, until now. Has our nation changed?  Will we hold it together?  Did the fear-saturated-campaign of 2024 and promises made with fascist overtones indicate a shift in our body politic?  Has racism, greed, misogyny and xenophobia reshaped our national identity or simply uncovered what was there?  Haven’t these dynamics always played a role? Of course, bigotry has been “background noise” but now, blatant discrimination and retribution are “baked-in” as a publicly endorsed strategy.

Is the seeking of truth sublimated to seeking revenge? Do computer algorithms prevent robust honest, dialogue among citizens?  Are “news” feeds turned into a diet of “ideologically-preprocessed-information-meals.”  Basic civic creeds that “all persons are created as equal,” or “the separation of church and state,” or “equal justice under the law” appear to be devalued, seen as outmoded and divorced from ethical political and civic practice. As grievance becomes the coin of the realm, an inflation of conspiracy theories, dictatorial impulses, and a sense of helplessness emerges. Can we hold it together?

We are heading into choppy national waters, bouncing along without a shared vision of common-wealth or personal responsibility. The Ship of State as conceived of by Jefferson, Hamilton, Adams and Madison, refined by Lincoln or Susan B Anthony and the wisdom of many more recent leaders is threatened. Our nation may founder on dangerous shoals of division, greed, and authoritarianism.  In his 1960 inaugural address John F. Kennedy challenged, “Ask not what your country can do for you but rather what can you do for your country?” 

My friend, the Rev. David G. Owen, now deceased, spoke of the importance of living a seamless life, where our actions (personal and social) are aligned with our core beliefs. These need to be “held together.” How shall we live more fully, as if our nation’s creeds and our religious beliefs are reflected in our daily actions? 

Recently, prior to a meeting, a friend advised, “It is best if we leave Jesus in the parking lot.”  Perhaps he feared that as a clergy person I would divert our attention from the stated agenda. I had heard this “leaving Jesus in the parking lot” talk before. I might have said, “O Jesus is already in that board room, don’t worry” but, instead, I was quiet.

“Holding it together” requires moral, judicial and behavioral consistency – being and doing.  This is not a call to Christian Nationalism, NO! It is quite the opposite. It is a call to a patriotism linked to virtues taught across the centuries, religious and non-religious. It is a turning away from the threats and abuses commonly practiced by mob bosses toward treating each neighbor as we would choose to be treated. It is a move toward a seamless patriotism and away from the tyrannical. When the allegiances we pledge are not matched by our actions or by facts, trust is impossible, and a civic brokenness inevitable. Historian Tim Snyder writes in “On Tyranny”: “A nationalist encourages us to be our worst, and then tells us that we are the best… A patriot has universal values, standards by which he judges his nation, always wishing it well—and wishing that it would do better.”

Philip Amerson, November 27, 2024