Matthew Fox titled a meditation this way and I’m shamelessly stealing it. In a world as beautiful as the one I view every morning - with a clear sky, an indigo lake below, snow covered fields an roofs, it’s easy to remember what a gift life is.
Not so when I look at the morning paper - threat of war in Ukraine, translators stuck in Afghanistan,, disagreement about timing of reopening, government overspending, departing health care workers. isolation in nursing homes. It is hard to look for good news. Reality does seem much more awful than awesome.
Another recent article looks at how identity is becoming linked to political party in the USA. Canada does have its anti-vaxxers, but they are a mall proportion of the population and generally dismissed. Our oldest province has the highest vaccination rate, all all of them are well ahead of American states. We are still one country, whereas the recent study suggests that America has two.
American Journalism makes the assumption that any judge appointed during the term of a political party will always vote the party line - and backs this assumption up every time there is a Supreme Court vote. This amplifies the impression of identity - and is sometimes wrong. Surely a judge has more integrity than that. I fault the American press - and on occasion my own in Canada for falling into that trap. If they want identity politics to lessen, why do they mention it at every turn.
More than three quarters of those who have died n the US are over 65. Probably ours are similar in percentage - but the numbers are significantly smaller. The Canadian deaths are largely due to poor protocols in nursing homes. The American staggering ones in the US relate to identity. Only 13% of Americans over the age of 65 are very worried about becoming infected. But a full 65% of the population say they are going to continue their life without taking precautions in the middle of a pandemic. 865,000 have died so far. Most of them are unvaccinated - and most of them are Republicans.
Most people scratch their heads and give up on ways to persuade dissenters. It’s just based on politics and religion and they have now collided. I have a modest suggestion for both. Do you want to win elections? Do you want to have congregations in the future? Both of these depend on people being alive.