A friend sent me a speech from Dr. Martin Luther King. The writing preaches that we’ve lost our faith that God is able. I was unfamiliar with King’s writing, but it helps to have the memory of his voice as I read this. I see a few sentences where he wasn’t listening enough to his writing angel, if there is such a thing. Nothing is perfect, and the spirit of what he preached is as perfect as a man can express it. A few commas are all that I’d add.
My favorite part of the writing addresses evil. What seems evil might have a result we can’t see. Buddhist ways teach us the middle path includes an ability to balance our reactions to evil, so we might reduce its powers. Pearl-clutching feels vibrant. It has a role to play in bending the arc back toward good. Unfortunately, so many pearls are now clutched in public, whatever that is, that we mistake the clutching for real power to change. Better we glory in Johnny Knoxville than wipe out the masked marauders of ICE.
Much of the evil which we experience in the world is due to man’s folly and ignorance, the misuse of his freedom. Beyond this, I can only assert that there is and always will be a penumbra of mystery surrounding God, and what appears evil for the moment may have a purpose that our finite minds are incapable of comprehending. So in spite of the pressure of evil and the occasional doubts that lurk in our minds we are constantly driven back to the conviction that our God is able.
Yes, we need more God now, so long as that God is rooted in compassion and empathy. Maybe Johnny has met his sell-by date. I get a taste of our modern world when my TV is on and I watch. I ought to do less of that, but I’m a basketball fan. There will be less Real World for me by June.
I watch TCM at my house, which has a simpler view of the world in its stories. It’s a little like scripture in that way. It’s like the guardrails are still up in that film world of my ancestors. Maybe heading back to their world is the healthiest thing I can do, here in this final act of my life’s play.