
Today is Matt’s birthday and I am staggering back to life, as usual, after a very busy weekend—one of those kinds where I was rushing between tasks and casting side-long glances at the lections for Sunday. I just couldn’t get my thoughts to arrange themselves in any particular direction. Matt’s birthday is now also the anniversary of the atrocities committed on Israelis last year, and the subsequent war. And there was some more news about Steve Lawson. And a lot of arguing online about whether FEMA is doing its job or not. But when I escaped from the clutches of the internet I was engrossed in some desperately needed autumn cleaning, clearing up the clutter after Sunday school, and trying to make sure there were enough rides for the heap of girls who hang out in my house between church and choir practice on Sunday afternoons. The contrast between a bright upstate October and the tumult of war clamoring on my feeds is, to put it mildly, discomfiting.
There are all kinds of ways to cope with this, now, universal experience. One is to ignore it all entirely and become uninformed. Another is to try to dabble without getting sucked in. The more usual path, though, is to take a side in every catastrophe. Whose side are you on post-Hurricane Helene? Do you think FEMA is doing a great job or is completely corrupt? Pick. What about the war Israel is prosecuting against Hezbollah? Whose side are you on? The election is coming up. Are you going to be an Evangelical for Harris? Or a Trumper. You have to pick. You can’t feel queasy about both but then conclude that one is much worse than the other.
At the root of all these binaries is something true. Relativism is bunk. At least we don’t have to pretend anymore that “everyone” is right. Goodness how mercifully shortlived that absurdity was. No, there is a truth in all these cases, though discovering what it might be is so difficult because all men—and women also—are liars.
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