What to Think, What to Do?

Tragedies on large scale arrest us, stop us in our tracks, help us cut to the chase, like a terminal diagnosis or an ultimatum from a friend.

I've read enough on the attempted assassination. It is shocking news in an information mileau where very little is shocking anymore.

The implicit result of all tragedy is gravity, or to put it better, gravitas. We live and love and laugh and suffer and die. Most of us seldom stop to wonder what it means, or when we do we trust others to tell us.

And so it has ever been. We know what matters because our parents told us, or the church, or that special Grandpa, the gifted boss, a book that went straight to the soul. Sometimes the things that shape us are tragic, what social scientists call malevolence. There's enough of that in this old world to dampen the most cheerful of spirits.

But tragedies on large scale arrest us and stop us in our tracks. Or they should. They help us cut to the chase, like a terminal diagnosis or an ultimatum from a friend. All of the sudden we know what matters, and we leave off all the silly stuff we dabbled in.

What arrests us in this near-assassination of a presumed Presidential nominee? This, maybe:

• Stop slinging arrows. Even if they are right (they probably aren't.) Even if you know the cause is righteous (it likely has serious problems.) Just stop, at least for now. "Cease fire" has its wisdom. It might free you from some nonsense in your outlook, and that's bound to be good.
• The best and worst among us -- yes, even that nominee you despise -- is human. He or she has failed egregiously, feels it painfully, has tried to overcome. If you hate a person you succumb to the sickness you think you are fighting. So stop. Dare to believe Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden are both human.
• The oldest and deepest ideas matter most, all the more true for their time-tested character. "The milk of human kindness." "Err on the side of mercy." "Act as you wish others would act." 
• In sum, to paraphrase a constant theme in the biblical book known as the Psalter, A most fundamental expression of God is His mercy: a willingness to suffer long and treat others with loving-kindness. This is world-sized thunder. If God is mercy, you and I have a chance. But as Jesus says, If we would have mercy we must show it.

I need a confessor, that desire itself a happy result of being arrested by tragedy. I confess to God and others my lack of mercy. I cannot conceive how others can disagree with what is obvious to me. I take affront, opprobrium, exception.... Ok, I despise the ideas and beg for grace not to despise the person.

I cannot walk this road very well. When a fellow human embraces an outlook I find not only wrong, but destructive, I am at a loss. I am sure they feel the same about me. It cannot be otherwise.

I can only say I am arrested, stopped, stymied, needy. I want peace and a stable nation. This can never be if we do not learn to live humbly in quiet diligence and care for our families and those in our community. Will one be elected I do not like? Maybe. The only halting, faulty conclusion I have is something like this:

If a Gavin Newsome or a Donald Trump is elected, our path is clear: learn quietness, love your neighbor, go to work, pray, care for your family, love your country.

That is all. Lord, have mercy.