Darkness cannot be dissipated with more darkness. More darkness will only make darkness thicker. Only light can dissipate darkness. Those of us who carry the light are called to shine the light, to share it so that the world will not sink into total darkness. —Thich Nhat Hanh
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(While waiting for my latte, I overheard an argument behind me, which turned out to be something of a Socratic dialogue on power.)
All this damn president wants is power, power, and more power!
I agree. But don’t be stupid. Everybody wants power. Everybody. How can you do anything big or small without some power?
Good point.
Look. Power can be abused. It can corrupt, that’s for sure. But corruption and abuse aren’t inevitable. Power is amoral, neutral, like a hammer.
Like a hammer?!
Yes, like a hammer. A hammer is amoral, but its use is not.
Yeah. I can see that now. Power can be used for good or evil.
Exactly. Consider this: Jesus had power. Right?
For sure. Lots of power.
But then Nero, St. Francis, Harriet Tubman, Abraham Lincoln, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Charles Manson had power, too. FDR and his labor secretary, Frances Perkins, had power. JFK, Rosa Parks, and Gandhi had power. You and I have power. Everybody does.
Silly me. I get that now. Everybody has power, yet power itself is amoral. Its use is not. Like a hammer.
You got it. The president has hurt a lot—and I mean A LOT—of people with his hammer. He has terrified millions. He has insulted women, veterans, people of color, and people with disabilities. He has threatened institutions and defunded USAID, which means the death of not hundreds or thousands, but hundreds of thousands—in Africa alone. He instigated a coup.
Damn him! That monster!
Indeed. But then, let’s be fair. He also used his hammer to fast-track a COVID-19 vaccine, crush Iran’s nuclear weapons program, negotiate a ceasefire in the Middle East, impel the release of hostages, befriend Syria, embrace the democratic socialist mayor-elect of New York City, and pardon two turkeys!
Oh, come on! Please! Don’t make light of this darkness. What does any of that have to do with the price of tea in China, you jerk?!
(And so it goes. I picked up my latte and left. I swear one of those two looked like the devil himself, in a toga.)
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Be wise. Be generous. Be bold.
Give a subversive book to friends and kin this Christmas.
Available from Four Seasons Books in Shepherdstown and from Amazon.
