Evelyn Underhill
There is a national mood that is captured by the imagination of 200+ million people experiencing the events of the day at the same time and in living color. Lately, the pundits say the mood is depressed. We are in a tailspin of worry; over gas prices, hurricanes, homeless family and friends, poverty, credit card debt, and a dying real estate market. And in a mass act of withdrawal we are starting to stay home, use less gas, spend less, turn the heat lower and the a/c higher, wear the same clothes more often, eat out less, and sigh more.
The pundits notice - the markets react. We are gripped by an anxiety that events are out of our control, that our spending spree is coming to an end, that the SUV will have to be garaged. We have no appreciation of the gifts we are blessed with, the extraordinary position we occupy in relation to the rest of the world. We obsess about terrorism while other people are blown up by it. Four years without a terrorist incident on our own soil and we still wait for the other shoe to drop. Meantime our foreign neighbors in Irag are experiencing 500 terrorist incidents a week. And rising.
We shake our heads over the lack of gas, it's high price, the specter of shortages. We drive less and buy more videos. We hope the winter will be kind, knowing that we may spend double for the heat we buy. We cannot conceive of a world where most people still walk, or bike, or ride animals to work. Our imagination does not extend to a world where people jam into the cities to be in close proximity to their work, supplies, relatives. And only Hurricane Katrina reminds us that our suburbs may be more vulnerable than we had once thought. And in 50 years, 75% of us will live on the coasts of this country.
The pundits notice - the markets react. Events spin out of control, no one seems to be in charge. The president suggests that the military should be in charge in times of national disaster and the governors, at least 38 of them, say no way. Mayor Nagin blames Governor Blanco who blames FEMA's Brown who blames Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco who blame the president who blames the Democrats who blame the Republicans who blame Brown who resigns. Meantime we watch on t.v. as helpless, old, disabled people float in oily water on top of doors waving for help, stand on rooftops as the water creeps higher, die in the streets lying in grocery carts. And the anti-war crowd gears up to press for our boys to come home soon. Who knows whether that idea has merit, our anxiety feeds our need to withdraw, pull in, give up. And who do we trust to make such a decision, Bush? Cheney? The Republicans? The Democrats? Mayor Nagin? Governor Blanco? Who is in charge?
We try to do what's right, take care of our own, go to church, say the pledge, raise our kids and pay our way. We have the outlines of what it takes but do we have the soul? The courage? The spirit? Are we leading or led? Up or down? Spirited or disspirited? Can we shake off our malaise long enough to lead with gentle humor, call down the spirit of the saints we pray to, take responsibility for our choices, make a difference? Can we? We are not lemmings rushing to the sea, social relationships do not define us, we can say no or yes or maybe. And no one else has to agree. All we need is gentle humor, sacrificing spirit, responsible action, saintliness.
