December 22, 2014

Woke with a curious sense of gaiety, The house is not so cold as it might be. Bitter weather is not soon predicted. Once I claw past the anxieties, everything seems to be on track. Last night was Longest Night, and we passed through. The second Cantaria concert was much better than the first, and as well attended. Over my sore back and sore feet, I felt exultant. Merry dinner on the brave porch of Avenue M. Burning the lights of the Christmas tree this morning because I forgot to– or was to-- glum to- last night.
  
What a Puritanical, Fundamentalist monster contemporary secular society is. A college president is presently in trouble for saying “all lives matter,” which apparently pulls attention from “black lives matter.” Humaneness, patience, and understanding are anathema if they seem to be aimed at people or institutions which are meant to be under an unceasing barrage of hatred. If someone mentions a grandchild or a pretty sunset, someone else– who probably thinks that he’s inspired by compassion-- must pipe up and say, “Oh, but only your privilege allows you to see that sunset or have that grandchild.” Killing joy in one place never, ever increases it in another. Nor are these things reasoned, proven, or discussed; like all Fundamentalist systems, it expects its pieties to be accepted as stated and universally applied. Failure to do so, failure to do so enthusiastically, is unappealable proof of depravity. Hearing my students’ instant, hysterical indignation when you say something as simple as “why?” in response to their Sociology 101 pieties is the single most terrifying thing I’ve encountered as a teacher. I think they might acknowledge the extremity of their response, but then say that the matter is so important that discussion or moderation is not appropriate. How this differs from religious Fundamentalism I can’t see. There are exceptions, but most people are trying to be good, trying to expel racism and sexism and intolerance from their hearts. No one on this planet, no one at all, has the right to blame them for going too slow or going slant, and it is not only because blame will not help, but because the blamers are themselves flawed, often irrational, often so prejudiced themselves they totter about like walking parodies of their own arguments. No one is righteous enough to blame the unrighteousness of another. Except by action. Only that. Doing good is the only unanswerable witness. Christ admonished those who had dared themselves to admonish. Whom does he hate as much as hypocrites? Buddha doesn’t speak of morality in the same way, but it is absurd to think of him going up in someone’s face and screaming “Glutton!” Any religious or moral view which requires the subjugation of others to it is false.

Yet, sometimes we need to know that we have strayed. I trust in circumstance to tell us, but what if we NEED admonition? I'm admitting to needing something I assert nobody has the right to give. I'll figure this out next year.

Still hours before dawn. I will have a full day.