This weekend, I am doing all those little things I like to do before going to the US. Today I am cutting my hair and organizing my computer stuff in case I don’t have easy access to the Internet. Later today I am going to experiment getting my travel files onto a USB stick so that I don’t have to take the MyBook with me. That will lighten my load quite a bit. I am planning on taking My Beloved to see her favourite painting: A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. On Good Friday, I am hoping to find an Episcopal Church in Chicago doing a Seven Last Words service like they do at Grace, which is my favourite church service.
Another thing that I have to do is brace myself for anger and hatred directed at me by way of radio and television. In the recent and not so recent past, I have allowed myself to get sucked into the vitriol that passes for political discourse. The thickness of my skin has definitely declined living in London because there is not a constant attacking of my value system going on in the media here. It is funny that I didn’t notice it when it disappeared, but boy do I notice it when it returns… and it is a quite a shock.
I used to think that I had no problem with Limbaugh and his ever-expanding flock of imitators either fuming with rage or working their listeners into anger. What I thought I had a problem with was when someone close to me, someone whom I liked and respected would start applying inaccurate, disingenuous, and sometimes hurtful labels on to my values system. But I have been fooling myself.
I realise now that the problem is within me. I can wish for a world where we can listen to each other’s wishes to make the greatest nation on earth even better calmly and rationally. We would see why the other side has their view, maybe agree to disagree, maybe compromise to let each other have a little bit of what we want. But that would truly be a wasted wish. A much better use for such a wish would be to wish for a world without disease, ignorance, war, fear, anger or hatred.
As far as I can tell, a single wish or prayer will not wipe out all the suffering in the world. But I believe that one prayer can wipe out one instance. It is interesting that even Jesus did not wipe out all leprosy or all blindness: he just wiped out one instance of it at a time. And there is a lesson in that for me.
So here is what I hope to do from now on. I hope to remember that behind that fear, anger, and hatred, there is actually hidden behind it somewhere a message of good intention. The ones delivering the message have a good reason for delivering it in this way. Perhaps it is easier to manipulate emotions than to make a logical argument. Perhaps the emotional appeal is more entertaining. Perhaps it is intended to trigger an emotional response from the opposition so as to make them look unreasonable. Perhaps the deliverer lacks the skill to present a reasoned argument instead of an emotional one.
Luckily for me, I am blessed with friends and family that have strong political preferences for the both flavours available in American politics. The only thing I ask of either side to consider is: if anyone has made it this far into this entry is this: when someone is telling you what someone else believes in, don’t just take his or her word for it. Consider that the position may be misrepresented or exaggerated to elicit a response. In the meantime, I will do my part and try to remain calm in the face of anger or misrepresentation. Like all challenges, this is just another opportunity for me to grow.
If all my friends and family moved to London tomorrow, I could live a pretty good life here. But I would still miss my homeland. I miss innately understanding the culture. I miss the mix of people, the mix of cuisines. I miss the just knowing stuff that most people around me just know. I miss my career, customer service, NASCAR, and CarTalk. Living outside my country has shown me that I love it even more than I thought I did. Sometimes I miss it so much that visiting is downright painful. It just means having to leave it behind yet again. But despite the din of anger on the airwaves, there is no place I would rather live than the United State of America.
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