Sunday Musings – December 2, 2018
It is always interesting, as I review the week, to see what comes to the forefront of my mind. This week I am particularly reminded that none of us humans can easily be defined by one or more labels. I listened to a podcast of Hidden Brain hosted by Shankar Vedanta recorded on November 26, 20198. The podcast entitled A Founding Contradiction features a conversation with historian Annette Gordon-Reed about the contradictions in Thomas Jefferson’s life. She and Peter Onuf are the authors of Most Blessed of the Patriarchs”; Thomas Jefferson and the Empire of the Imagination. I highly recommend the book which details the contractions he somehow lived with; the contradictions of owning many slaves, writing about how owning slaves could not be morally justified and fathering six children with a slave for whom he seemed to feel great affection. In fact, he apparently had genuine affection for more than one of his slaves. Thomas Jefferson was an attorney, owner of several plantations, father, slave owner, hypocrite, politician, a gifted writer, philosopher and author of “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” He was also a man of a particular period in time. Would the real Thomas Jefferson pleased be recognized?
This week witnesed the death of the 41st president, George H. W. Bush. He was a gifted politician who did what he had to do to gain and use political power. He made decisions for which many people in the U. S. Military as well as the host of other people continue to pay the often-ultimate price. He was also a man who deeply loved his country, his wife, his children, his grandchildren and great grandchildren. He also loved and was a good friend to many including the Oak Ridge Boys, a country western group. Historians will detail his accomplishments and failures; his warmness and his, at times hard, limited vision. He was many things for and with many people in many different roles.
This week bore witness to the ferocious behavior of mother nature as she visited an Earthquake in Alaska; the tear gassing of children and adults fleeing violence and reaching for an understanding and welcoming hands, the assertion that a rather well-known attorney was lying about his lying, bitter winter conditions in parts of the United States and a
G-20(+) meeting in South America.
Last but not least the week saw the release of more lists of priests and deacons of the Roman Catholic Church who have been “credibly accused of abusing minor children” over the past 70 years or so. The goal of releasing these lists is not clear at best. The lack of clarity of purpose saddens many of us. These men –living and dead - are more than the list implies.
These and other events of this week were a poignant reminder of the severe limitations, often cruelness and short sightedness of imagining that any person can be understood, labeled and thus “sold”, disposed of or even sainted. We are all many people and none of them.
Written December 2, 2018
It is always interesting, as I review the week, to see what comes to the forefront of my mind. This week I am particularly reminded that none of us humans can easily be defined by one or more labels. I listened to a podcast of Hidden Brain hosted by Shankar Vedanta recorded on November 26, 20198. The podcast entitled A Founding Contradiction features a conversation with historian Annette Gordon-Reed about the contradictions in Thomas Jefferson’s life. She and Peter Onuf are the authors of Most Blessed of the Patriarchs”; Thomas Jefferson and the Empire of the Imagination. I highly recommend the book which details the contractions he somehow lived with; the contradictions of owning many slaves, writing about how owning slaves could not be morally justified and fathering six children with a slave for whom he seemed to feel great affection. In fact, he apparently had genuine affection for more than one of his slaves. Thomas Jefferson was an attorney, owner of several plantations, father, slave owner, hypocrite, politician, a gifted writer, philosopher and author of “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” He was also a man of a particular period in time. Would the real Thomas Jefferson pleased be recognized?
This week witnesed the death of the 41st president, George H. W. Bush. He was a gifted politician who did what he had to do to gain and use political power. He made decisions for which many people in the U. S. Military as well as the host of other people continue to pay the often-ultimate price. He was also a man who deeply loved his country, his wife, his children, his grandchildren and great grandchildren. He also loved and was a good friend to many including the Oak Ridge Boys, a country western group. Historians will detail his accomplishments and failures; his warmness and his, at times hard, limited vision. He was many things for and with many people in many different roles.
This week bore witness to the ferocious behavior of mother nature as she visited an Earthquake in Alaska; the tear gassing of children and adults fleeing violence and reaching for an understanding and welcoming hands, the assertion that a rather well-known attorney was lying about his lying, bitter winter conditions in parts of the United States and a
G-20(+) meeting in South America.
Last but not least the week saw the release of more lists of priests and deacons of the Roman Catholic Church who have been “credibly accused of abusing minor children” over the past 70 years or so. The goal of releasing these lists is not clear at best. The lack of clarity of purpose saddens many of us. These men –living and dead - are more than the list implies.
These and other events of this week were a poignant reminder of the severe limitations, often cruelness and short sightedness of imagining that any person can be understood, labeled and thus “sold”, disposed of or even sainted. We are all many people and none of them.
Written December 2, 2018
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