Say
Yes
“Cynicism
masquerades as wisdom, but it is the furthest thing from it. Because cynics don’t
learn anything. Because cynicism is a self-imposed blindness: a rejection of
the world because we are afraid it will hurt us or disappoint us. Cynics always
say ‘no.’ But saying ‘yes’ begins things. Saying ‘yes’ is how things grow.”
Stephen
Colbert
The
year-2020-has been hell for optimists and paradise for cynics. We hopeful inhabitants
of the human world have had an awful year. We have lost more people to Covid 19
than we lost in all the wars fought in my lifetime—more every week than were
lost in 9/11. We are tired of infighting and outfighting, and dismal jobs and
earnings reports. We are tired of debating school openings and watching
teenagers behave like idiots at Covid parties. We are tired of certain
religious folks acting like they have an invisible shield of protection around
them personally supplied by “the lord,” who apparently didn’t see fit to protect
their neighbors or grandma in the nursing home—fickle man-god that he is. But
as tired as we may be of all this, we are even more tired of predictions of
utter disaster.
Going
through a rough time does not equate with the downfall of the world as we know
it. We have some terrible leaders—ones who care more about themselves than they
do about the people they govern. We put them there and we can take them out. We
also have dedicated scientists who are working night and day to arrive at a
vaccine that works. We have wonderful doctors and nurses constantly trying new
approaches to treatment, and in the process extending the lives of sick people
for generations to come. We have brilliant entrepreneurs who have cobbled together
new ways of creating, building, and delivering necessities. We have ordinary people
pulling together and helping each other. As Sebastian Junger wrote in his
book, Tribe, people always rise to the occasion in the face of disaster. Some
of our most productive decades have come in response to devastation at our door.
Norman
Cousins once called cynicism “intellectual treason.” Bob Newhart called
it “a potential danger…it colors our way of looking at the world.” And
Jesse Jackson warned, “There is no power in cynicism. There is no forward
thrust in cynicism.” As for me, I refuse to give up on the world because I
have seen the goodness that resides in human hearts and in all of creation. We
cannot afford to give up or to turn our backs and walk away, as tempting as that
might be. The real problem is not out there—neither in our streets nor in our
democracy. The real problem is in us and in those of us who have opted for cynicism
as an exit card.
I love this country and this world. I came into it with my
eyes wide open and with the tenacity to always struggle toward life, and I will
go out of it the same way. Let’s stand together in this difficult time and not
allow cynicism to divide and conquer.
In
the Spirit,
Jane
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