Eye on the Prize

Through it all – the hubbub, media noise, screeching protesters, ugly videos for newscasts – words are said, actions on view. What does it mean? What is the purpose of all this? Is it leading toward something? And is that ‘something’ of value.


Value? What value? Whose value? Yours? Mind? Ours?


Good question. Value. Values. The end result we hope for. The prize. No; The Prize.


What is that? Can you define it? How does this definition fit with what we think our society has valued in the past? Is it the same, or similar? Might it be starkly different? If it is, why is this so? What was so off-base about our past value that it needs to be supplanted by the new? And is the new acceptable to me, you and all of us? Who is to say? How do we know consensus is present?


I deeply care that the people I know are respectful of differences and diversity among us. Each helps the other know themselves. It is the contrast of difference that makes me understand me. You don’t even have to teach me. It is an evident reality creating friction that teaches. Unbidden. Insistent. A dichotomy needing resolution. In my mind, not yours. Diversity matters. It enriches my life.


So, I value diversity – of gender, of gender orientation, of political views, of ethnicity, religious views, artistic sensibilities – anything that displays something different than my own reality. It stretches the brain. Challenge does that. It pulls me toward a fuller consciousness. My being expands, breathes.


So too a nation, its culture, sensibility and humanity. I treasure this sort of social awareness and value structure. It augments each person’s worth and, in turn, my own. This is my America. This is my reality, hope and aspiration. Respect. Perspective. Honesty. Freedom of thought and wonder. Maybe even love of stranger, for the kernel that is a different treasure?


Democracy is messy. The striving for democracy is worthy. So too, the messiness. But are we heading in the right direction? Are we still honoring individuality and intellectual curiosity? Do we value these things?


Is America still the America we grew to know? Or is it morphing into a an unknown ogre? Was this always true? Or am I just awakening to a hideous truth?


April 4, 2019