Be
Soft
“Be
soft. Do not let the world make you hard. Do not let pain make you hate. Do not
let the bitterness steal your sweetness. Take pride that even though the rest
of the world may disagree with you, you still believe it to be a beautiful
place.”
Kurt
Vonnegut
Good
Sunday morning to you. In two days, we here in the US will go to the polls to
vote. This has been the most contentious election in my lifetime—which has
witnessed many presidents come and go. The candidates are in the final sprint and
must be totally exhausted but running on adrenalin. Half the population has
already voted, so great is our desire to put this one behind us. And all of us
are praying for an election day free of violence. Yesterday, Trump supporters
surrounded the Biden campaign bus on an interstate highway in Texas, attempting
to stop him from getting to his next engagement. They ended up ramming a
staffer’s car and almost running the bus off the road. The police were called
to step in. It is incredible to me that American politics has reached this low
bar. Amazing, and so, so sad.
Kurt
Vonnegut, who authored many books including his most famous, Slaughterhouse
Five, was taken prisoner in Germany after the Battle of the Bulge. He survived
the bombing of Dresden by hiding in a meat locker in the slaughterhouse where
he was imprisoned. His contingent of captured American soldiers were forced to
go out after the bombings and collect the bodies of the dead. And he could
still write what he wrote above and live the life he lived. “Do not let the
world make you hard.” Do not let it take away your sweetness. Such good
advice for all of us today.
As a
patriotic American, I hope that you will go and vote on Tuesday if you haven’t
already. While you are there, say hello to your neighbors who are there, too—even
the ones who vote differently from you. We must reclaim our souls. This chaos
and bitterness cannot make us so hard we permanently turn against one another. America
is still a beautiful country, and we-the-people are still who we have always
been—we are not enemies. Here is a promise from Ezekiel 36:26: “I will give
you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of
stone and give you a heart of flesh.” Stay soft, people. We are almost
there.
In
the Spirit,
Jane
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