Perspective
This morning, July 31, 2016 the Tampa Bay Times in the Sunday Perspective section had an article by Rebecca Onion entitled “2016: The worst year ever?” In this article Ms. Onion reminds the reader that there have been many times in human history when catastrophic events have threatened the very existence of the human race when one group of people violently conquered another nation. She begins with 72,000 B.C. which hosted a massive “volcanic super-eruption” which eventually reduced the human population to “between 3,000 and 10,000 people.” She also reminds the reader of the year 1348 when the black death killed at least a third of the population of Europe.
Often as a counselor I am asked to guide people in gaining some perspective. They may call me when some major event has disrupted – often forever - the design of their life. Death of a beloved partner, death of a child, economic disaster, the ravages of an illness such as cancer, addiction or the result of an accident leaving the person or a family member permanently paralyzed can halt the trajectory of a planned and ordered life. Sometimes, the event is a “natural” one of aging which many of us experience as a sudden onset. The aging person may have been adept at avoiding what was increasingly obvious to everyone except the them. One day suddenly they are old and unable to care for themselves.
It is often at that moment of epiphany one may not to be able to envision or conceptualize a new design for life - a design which has meaning or is worth living. Later, if lucky, that person may be able to see that tragic time in in their life as the time when the new vision began to take shape.
I have a very vivid oral and visual memory of my paternal grandparents and other adults prophesizing the end of the world if so and so got elected to a political office or if so and so in the family or larger community had to deal with event X. This might concern a divorce, the election of a public official, the unplanned pregnancy of a child, the action of a foreign nation or some other event which was major for the people having the discussion or hosting the wake for life as one knew it. I recall, on one of my last visits to my material grandfather, him saying to me, “You have ruined your life. Not only do the drive a G..D.. foreign car, you got a G..D.. divorce and you are a G..D.. Presbyterian minister.” Obviously all of those facts – indeed they were facts – foretold, not only my future, but the future of civilization as he and my deceased grandmother had known it! I can also recall that he once told me about the “secrecy” surrounding the death of one of my two favorite cousins, Marilyn, “You know she killed herself. And a dammed good thing she did. She got herself pregnant while in college by a G.. D.. N..... “ It was useless to attempt to convince him that racism was a socially constructed concept to justify the oppression of a group of people in order to allow some other people to convince themselves that more money and power would bring the internal peace they sought.
Wars, the killing of young people by police, the killing of police officers, mass shootings, so-called natural events, the phenomenon of Trump and the new Philippine President may make it seems as if this is indeed the worst of times and is not balanced as Dickens would have had us believe:
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.” (A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens published in 1859)
For a moment this morning I ‘found myself’ thinking that it is indeed the worst of times. This was after reading the latest Trumpism criticizing the Muslim father Mr. Khizr Kahn who spoke of the death of the beloved son of he and his wife, Army Captain Humayun Khan, at the Democratic National Convention last week. Mr. Trump commented on the fact that Mrs. Khan did not speak, “if you look at his wife, she was standing there, she had nothing to say, she probably – maybe she wasn’t allowed to have anything to say.” Later Ghazala Khan said she “cannot even come in the room where his picture is” much less speak in public about his death. Mr. Kahn later said his “wife helped him craft his remarks and even told him to remove certain attacks he wanted to make against Trump.” (Interview with New York Times). Yet, the fact that Mr. and Mrs. Khan did so eloquently speak out proves, once again, that it is the best of times. There are many wonderful signs that we are, even today, entering a time when we can no longer avoid the fact that all of us do better when creating a new, joyful dance of love and cooperation. Humans are a hearty bunch. We survive the “worst of times” by “putting our best foot forward.” We have been here before and will be again. Perhaps, just perhaps, it is again the cusp of a new age of enlightenment.
A little perspective is indeed a gift. Thanks Ms. Rebecca Onion.
Written July 31, 2016
This morning, July 31, 2016 the Tampa Bay Times in the Sunday Perspective section had an article by Rebecca Onion entitled “2016: The worst year ever?” In this article Ms. Onion reminds the reader that there have been many times in human history when catastrophic events have threatened the very existence of the human race when one group of people violently conquered another nation. She begins with 72,000 B.C. which hosted a massive “volcanic super-eruption” which eventually reduced the human population to “between 3,000 and 10,000 people.” She also reminds the reader of the year 1348 when the black death killed at least a third of the population of Europe.
Often as a counselor I am asked to guide people in gaining some perspective. They may call me when some major event has disrupted – often forever - the design of their life. Death of a beloved partner, death of a child, economic disaster, the ravages of an illness such as cancer, addiction or the result of an accident leaving the person or a family member permanently paralyzed can halt the trajectory of a planned and ordered life. Sometimes, the event is a “natural” one of aging which many of us experience as a sudden onset. The aging person may have been adept at avoiding what was increasingly obvious to everyone except the them. One day suddenly they are old and unable to care for themselves.
It is often at that moment of epiphany one may not to be able to envision or conceptualize a new design for life - a design which has meaning or is worth living. Later, if lucky, that person may be able to see that tragic time in in their life as the time when the new vision began to take shape.
I have a very vivid oral and visual memory of my paternal grandparents and other adults prophesizing the end of the world if so and so got elected to a political office or if so and so in the family or larger community had to deal with event X. This might concern a divorce, the election of a public official, the unplanned pregnancy of a child, the action of a foreign nation or some other event which was major for the people having the discussion or hosting the wake for life as one knew it. I recall, on one of my last visits to my material grandfather, him saying to me, “You have ruined your life. Not only do the drive a G..D.. foreign car, you got a G..D.. divorce and you are a G..D.. Presbyterian minister.” Obviously all of those facts – indeed they were facts – foretold, not only my future, but the future of civilization as he and my deceased grandmother had known it! I can also recall that he once told me about the “secrecy” surrounding the death of one of my two favorite cousins, Marilyn, “You know she killed herself. And a dammed good thing she did. She got herself pregnant while in college by a G.. D.. N..... “ It was useless to attempt to convince him that racism was a socially constructed concept to justify the oppression of a group of people in order to allow some other people to convince themselves that more money and power would bring the internal peace they sought.
Wars, the killing of young people by police, the killing of police officers, mass shootings, so-called natural events, the phenomenon of Trump and the new Philippine President may make it seems as if this is indeed the worst of times and is not balanced as Dickens would have had us believe:
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.” (A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens published in 1859)
For a moment this morning I ‘found myself’ thinking that it is indeed the worst of times. This was after reading the latest Trumpism criticizing the Muslim father Mr. Khizr Kahn who spoke of the death of the beloved son of he and his wife, Army Captain Humayun Khan, at the Democratic National Convention last week. Mr. Trump commented on the fact that Mrs. Khan did not speak, “if you look at his wife, she was standing there, she had nothing to say, she probably – maybe she wasn’t allowed to have anything to say.” Later Ghazala Khan said she “cannot even come in the room where his picture is” much less speak in public about his death. Mr. Kahn later said his “wife helped him craft his remarks and even told him to remove certain attacks he wanted to make against Trump.” (Interview with New York Times). Yet, the fact that Mr. and Mrs. Khan did so eloquently speak out proves, once again, that it is the best of times. There are many wonderful signs that we are, even today, entering a time when we can no longer avoid the fact that all of us do better when creating a new, joyful dance of love and cooperation. Humans are a hearty bunch. We survive the “worst of times” by “putting our best foot forward.” We have been here before and will be again. Perhaps, just perhaps, it is again the cusp of a new age of enlightenment.
A little perspective is indeed a gift. Thanks Ms. Rebecca Onion.
Written July 31, 2016
RSS Feed