Life Goes On

Life Goes On (My Version)
By now I’m pretty sure you know who I want living at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue when all this shakes out. What I want to also be clear about, is that if the outcome that I need- we need- does not happen, I am going to carry HOPE in my heart. I think back to 2008 and the great senator from Illinois who taught us a lesson in hope, change and a better way forward for ALL of us- not just some of us. I will carry in my heart the spirit of all of those historic firsts last night. The repeat wins of all of those progressive lawmakers who are pushing us forward towards a better union. I’m also clinging closer to home. Looking at two beautiful little girls that are actual living breathing examples of progress. Physical reminders that two people from very different backgrounds, different ethnicities and communities can find a way to let LOVE lead. LOVE always wins. Even if the illusion of darkness clouds our vision. LOVE always wins!And so I am not afraid of today or tomorrow or the weeks ahead. I’m trusting this process. I’m trusting that if 2020 has taught us anything- it’s that wounds need to be exposed in order to heal. 2020 ripped us wide open and exposed our festering wounds we tried to hide, tried to ignore. The reckoning has come. It is here no matter what. The real question is, what part are you going to play in the healing?
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Life Goes On by Howard Thurman
During these turbulent times we must remind ourselves repeatedly that life goes on. This we are apt to forget. The wisdom of life transcends our wisdoms; the purpose of life outlasts our purposes; the process of life cushions our processes. The mass attack of disillusion and despair, distilled out of the collapse of hope, has so invaded our thoughts that what we know to be true and valid seems unreal and ephemeral. There seems to be little energy left for aught but futility. This is the great deception. By it whole peoples have gone down to oblivion without the will to affirm the great and permanent strength of the clean and the commonplace. Let us not be deceived. It is just as important as ever to attend to the little graces by which the dignity of our lives is maintained and sustained .Birds still sing;the stars continue to cast their gentle gleam over the desolation of the battlefields,and the heart is still inspired by the kind word and the gracious deed. There is no need to fear evil. There is every need to understand what it does, how it operates in the world,what it draws upon to sustain itself. We must not shrink from the knowledge of the evilness of evil. Over and over we must know that the real target of evil is not destruction of the body,the reduction to rubble of cities; the real target of evil is to corrupt the spirit of man and to give his soul the contagion of inner disintegration. When this happens,there is nothing left, the very citadel of man is captured and laid waste. Therefore the evil in the world around us must not be allowed to move from without to within. This would be to be overcome by evil.To drink in the beauty that is within reach,to clothe one’s life with simple deeds of kindness, to keep alive a sensitiveness to the movement of the spirit of God in the quietness of the human heart and in the workings of the human mind—this is as always the ultimate answer to the great deception.