As is no secret, the Intramuralist is saddened and concerned regarding the current societal climate. So much disrespect is being justified. So much unwillingness to listen is being encouraged. So much shouting, tension, blindness, meanness, etc. So much… dare I say, too much.
I’ve been asked at least three times in recent weeks, “AR, aren’t you concerned?”
Of course I am. I would only add that I’ve been concerned long before last November.
This week, no less, something struck me. It was one of those moments from a book or a text where I felt immediate cause to pause, as the written words extended way beyond the pages encasing their current context. It was similar to how I frequently felt, fumbling through the truths buried in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, and in When Character Was King by Peggy Noonan. There is truth in words — regardless of where they are found… in a book, a friend’s text, even on a postcard or placard…
The following words struck me this week, as I pondered the relevance to the frictional, non-fictional climate we now witness. Maybe this is relevant; maybe it’s not. But something within made me think… this whole idea that…
“… The idea that the whole human race is, in a sense, one thing — one huge organism, like a tree — must not be confused with the idea that individual differences do not matter or that real people, Tom and Nobby and Kate, are somehow less important than collective things like classes, races, and so forth. Indeed the two ideas are opposites. Things which are parts of a single organism may be very different from one another; things which are not, may be very alike. Six pennies are quite separate and very alike; my nose and lungs are very different, but they are only alive at all because they are parts of my body and share its common life…
[Note: sharing common life…]
When you find yourself wanting to turn your children, or pupils, or even your neighbours, into people exactly like yourself, remember that God probably never meant them to be that. You and they are different organs, intended to do different things. On the other hand, when you are tempted not to bother about someone else’s troubles because they are ‘no business of yours’, remember that though he is different from you, he is part of the same organism as you. If you forget that he belongs to the same organism as yourself, you will become an Individualist. If you forget that he is a different organ from you, if you want to suppress differences and make all people alike, you will become a Totalitarian…
I feel a strong desire to tell you — and I expect you feel a strong desire to tell me — which of these two errors is the worse. That is the devil getting at us. He always sends errors into the world in pairs — pairs of opposites. And he always encourages us to spend a lot of time thinking which is the worse. You see why, of course?
He relies on your extra dislike of the one error to draw you gradually into the opposite one. But do not let us be fooled. We have to keep our eyes on the goal and go straight through between both errors. We have no other concern than that with either of them.”
Friends, do we see this?
Can we see this?
“The devil is getting at us.” He is manipulating us into identifying solely one as “worse.”
We must remember we are part of the same “organism.” The goal is thus not to make all people think the same; the goal is also not to be so blinded that we think of the other as so much “worse” — evil, in fact. We need to find a way to talk and listen and learn from those who are different — not shut them down nor ignore their perspective.
For some reason, the wisdom of C.S. Lewis stood out to me this week. It also seemed profoundly relevant.
Respectfully…
AR