Recent Historical Moments

In later years, when I look back on these blog posts, will I wonder why I didn't include some of the more compelling political developments? I'm thinking of the confirmation of the first African American female Supreme Court Justice, the leaked Alito document that seemed to say that Roe will be overturned momentarily, the baby formula shortage, and so on.

In part I didn't comment because I was blogging less because of my broken wrist. In part, especially when it comes to Roe, I am just tired and despairing.  There's a larger issue, an anti-female mood that seems to be percolating under all of society, and I don't know what to do with that.

Well I do know variety of options. One might leave the country. One might rededicate oneself to politics. One might move to a place where the land can support more food options (vegetable gardens, chickens, goats, etc.), where one might hunker down and wait out whatever this is that is upon us. One might think about more extreme options.

I hasten to say I am not thinking about more extreme options, although some might think that going to seminary is an extreme option, especially at my age and my gender. I understand the appeal of violence, but everything that I have seen, read, and understood leads me to believe that nonviolence is the better option, and right now, it is still an option.

Many people are looking back at historical hinge moments to try to explain our own moment. I want to believe that what we are seeing, this backlash against all the various progressive movements of the last 100 years, is a last gasp of desperate people, people who will die off if we just wait long enough.

However, I know the opposite might be true. I am old enough to remember a time in the 1970's, when women in Iran, in Afghanistan, had careers, when the country seemed to be on a path to modernization. How quickly things can change.

Let me remind myself that things can also change quickly in directions that aren't as scary. I am also old enough to remember a time when Nelson Mandela was in prison, and we all expected he would die there. Instead he was released and went on to be elected president of South Africa, the nation that imprisoned him.

I trust that we will figure out the baby formula shortage in short order. That problem seems much more easily fixed than some of our others. I will train myself to look for progress where I can find it; be confirmation of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is one of those markers. I will remind myself that even in the darkest hours, we can see evidence of goodness, if we keep our eyes open.