JOYFUL PIECE #7
Ants come to my rescue
Image by andrewdunnphoto.com, courtesy of Wikipedia.
The Guest Essay by Jesse Nathan in the New York Times edition of August 22 had me thinking about what one nation means.
His essay made sense to me. Finding it hopeful, it brought me great joy, and I wrote a post on it for today. But the day had different plans. We casually turned on the TV on Saturday and were surprised, aghast, at the in-your-face reporting on yet another hate shooting, this time in Jacksonville, Florida.
Along with everyone else in the United States I have grown sickeningly accustomed to these endlessly repeating events. There have been many of them: some victims have been innocent children in Texas schools, or worshipers in Pittsburgh or a Central Texas Church, or shoppers at an El Paso, Texas mall. And as horrific as these past shootings have been, there was something about this shooting in Jacksonville that tore at my heart.
The Jacksonville hate crime took place at a Dollar General store, where those husbanding limited resources go to stretch their available resources. The shooting did not occur at Bergdorf Goodman, or Sachs 5th Avenue, or Neiman Marcus, or a high-end mall or venue for luxury goods. For whatever twisted motive, the shooter’s venue was a place frequented by those at the lower income levels of our society to buy the necessities of daily life.
The shooting had me in a downer into Sunday. Trying to shake off my sullen mood, I ventured out to lose myself in nature’s beauty. It was well over 100 baking degrees at Noon. As I walked over to the wood fence, I was surprised to see a swarm of ants busily doing what ants do— scrambling to and fro, bumping heads and exchanging whatever random gossip ants love to share.
To see such effervescent display of life in the awful heat of a Central Texas morning made me step back in awe at the resilience of life.
Joy is not the opposite of the darkness that creeps up on us at times. For me, joy is not the fleeting happiness that I seek on trivial pursuits. Joy is what grounds me to withstand the challenges of life and persevere on the path to a better reality. I refuse to remain down bewailing the detestable acts perpetrated by man on man. I refuse because in my being, I have grown to merge faith, hope, and joy.
My premise before the shooting was to write about how when flying over the United States, you can see no state boundaries, no red or blue states. How voters within a given state display rainbows of opinions on the issues that truly affect us, and even on the wedge issues crafted by demagogues to divide us. I confess that I hesitated to pursue that line of thought in my post after the news of the shooting. But the ants came to my rescue. This post was co-authored with my ants.
Read Jesse Nathan’s marvelous piece, The Lines Between Red and Blue America Are Blurring, Not Hardening. It will do you good.
Keep faith alive, keep hope alive, keep joy alive!
