Most people I know who actually
participate in any type of goal-setting or resolution-making do so at the
beginning of the year. I like June for
this purpose. OK, June and Lent.
Raised in the Anglican Communion,
teaching for nine years at a Catholic school, avid believer in meditation,
Buddhist values and all things positive, I’m not so sure where my ‘faith
tradition’ lies these days. Sometimes I find myself envious of those who have
it down more firmly than I. Other times I ponder the great cosmic mistake that
caused this ruckus we have going on the planet – complete with greed,
competition and automobiles, and go all John Lennon on it. Imagine.
Lent has rolled around on those
unsuspecting practitioners, and this time, as most times, I’ve jumped in. But
this year feels a little different, because there is so much going on. Isn’t there?
The instantaneous news feeds (particularly weather reporting – holy moly
– but that’s another whole piece that I don’t have time to write at the moment)
have been what I’ve blamed on the edginess and anxiety going on around us all of
late. Well, instantaneous reporting and a little unbalance in my hormones,
perhaps. I often wonder ‘Is it just ME, or have we all gone a little apeshit?’,
but this is a question I am loathe to ask out loud. I mean, TROUBLE has been around forever,
right? Bad people have always existed. So have hurricanes, earthquakes,
tsunamis…you get the idea. When the
Mayan Calendar end-of-the-world mongers were saying “SEE?? Look how bad the
weather is, the axis is slipping, it’s all OVER!!” I was thinking that they
just didn’t realize that this business has been happening for centuries; we
just never had i-phones to let each other know about it immediately.
And then a couple of
weeks ago, as I was innocently working away and listening to the radio
(multi-tasking – I have skills!) THIS
was the dialogue via my earbuds (The
Diane Rehm Show – Friday News Roundup-International 2/1/2013):
JOHN (Caller) 11:45:58
My question is
this, it's sort of a question and a comment because one of the gentlemen on
your program just referred to it but you know, in the previous hour people were
talking about how popular Hillary Clinton was and raving about what she had
done because she'd traveled all over. But when one looks at the state of North
Africa and the Mideast it appears to me, I'm 76 years old, and appears to me
we've never been in worse shape than we are right now in those areas.
REHM (Host) 11:46:30
You know, John, I
was saying during the break, it just
seems as though the whole world is in chaos. How do you respond, Yochi?
DREAZEN (Yochi Dreazen -contributing editor at The Atlantic) 11:46:45
I think that's a
great question and I agree with you. We
were joking about it kind of, you know, ruefully about how bad things are the
world over. I think there are a lot of questions to be raised about the
Obama administration foreign policy and her role in it. You know, she supported
the Afghan surge. It has not worked.
DREAZEN 11:47:02
She supported some
of the tougher lines in Pakistan. It's questionable about how effective the
drone campaign there has been in terms of showing up a very weak government.
Her role in Libya where the U.S. was sort of dragged into it against its will
and we talked about her role and the role of the administration in Egypt so I
think there are really genuine questions about what she accomplished.
DREAZEN 11:47:17
To the broader
point there's a new show that premiered this week called "The
Americans," which is about a Russian, a sort of KGB undercover couple
living in America in the '80s, a phenomenal show, but what's interesting about
it is it's a reminder of 30 years ago
and the world seemed relatively neat.
DREAZEN 11:47:36
You had the U.S.
You had the U.S.S.R. You had all these kinds of shadow fights with dead drops
and spies. Flash forward and I think there's a bit of nostalgia like with
"Mad Men." Now we're in a
world where you've got groups in Africa we don't really understand, opposition
groups in Syria we don't really understand, unrest across parts of the world
that have been stable for decades so I think the caller is exactly right. This
is a scary time.
REHM 11:47:51
Susan?
GLASSER (Susan Glasser, editor-in-chief of Foreign Policy magazine) 11:47:52
Yes, but I think
is a pretty giant, you know, red siren-flashing, but here, Yochi. The Cold War
posed an existential threat to the United States in a way that as tragic, as
disturbing, as dangerous to the national interest as some of these crises are
they in no way pose the kind of threat to the United States that we existed
under for the entire dangerous period of the Cold War.
GLASSER 11:48:20
And I think that's
very important to remember. There's a real lively academic debate going on
right now. There's a professor at Harvard, Steven Pinker who has done a big
study of violence in the world and makes the argument that in fact we are
living, despite what it seems like from reading the newspapers, we're living in a historic time of less
violence than ever before in human history.
GLASSER 11:48:46
And there are many
numbers not only to support this, but I do think it's important to remember
that, A, we don't know where we are in
the story and, B, and pretty significantly, that inarguably I think by any
standards, although these are individual, disturbing crises it is difficult to
see what tools the United States has to manage them in many cases. The bottom
line is that actually we're much safer today.
*** *** *** ***
OK, so IT ISN’T JUST ME. That’s
the first takeaway. Although I was stunned
to hear others (and frighteningly erudite others, by the way) admit this
aloud. Second takeaway was Steven Pinker. Now there’s a guy I haven’t
thought of in a few years. He had my head spinning back in the day when I still
worked for universities and had time to ponder.
His first book, The Language Instinct, resulted in my
semi-idolizing him for a bit. Apparently he has taken on that task himself, and
now resides (presides?) at Harvard. He has great hair. I haven’t read The Better Angels of our Nature yet, but it’s on its way. We shall see. If anyone else wants to weigh
in on it, please do.
And although my ‘faith tradition’ is bouncing all over the place, the call
of the Lenten promise of extra meditation, a little self-denial, and extra
kindness to those in need pulled me out of the office, into the car, and driving
(rather frantically) into the parking lot of All Saints’ Episcopal Church this
past Wednesday. Harried after rushing in
lunchtime traffic, I walked into the narthex where two priests, a bishop, and a
lay-reader were waiting to process in. They were followed by an altar-server
whom I have known pretty much my entire life (mom to childhood friends!) who
greeted me by name, hugged me and told me she was happy I wasn’t late.
I went in, knelt, and said the same thing in silent prayer that I always say when I first get into
church. “Thank you driver for gettin’ me here”. It was instant
relief. Steven Pinker says we’re safer,
yet life feels crazier. Lent feels good.
