Last night, at nearly midnight, Pat and I stood on our deck looking eastward. From this vantage point we can see for miles, almost to the edge of Austin some fifteen miles away. Across the darkened horizon we could see ten or more fireworks displays, some so close we could hear the rockets explode, some so distant only a colorful burst of light gave evidence of people celebrating the end of one year and the beginning of another. Quite likely, if we had stood on our roof, we would have had a 360-degree view of how people were welcoming 2021. It was exciting to watch what in many cases were declarations of hope, and in just as many cases acts of disobedience. Most, if not all, of those fireworks displays were in violation of local laws.
All in all, I’m a law-and-order kind of guy. Out in the Panhandle, when I was driving on one of those FM (Farm to Market) roads and came upon a four-way stop, I stopped, even if I could see no other cars in sight. Yet, I agree with Pat’s assessment of last night’s illegal activities. “This is good. People need this.” The past year, 2020, with its acrimonious election, seemingly endless investigations of the president, civil unrest, and pandemic-related crises, is a candidate for the worst year ever. (Historians and some older folks suggest a couple years from the 1930s are also contenders.) The hope that 2021 will be better is grasped tenaciously.
So, while no one will ever suggest I’ve entered my “outlaw years,” I’ll suggest we all resolve to break a few rules this year. Here are a few we should break:
--Let’s all break the rule requiring us to see supporters of one Party as amoral, supporters of the other Party as idiots (the pejoratives are inter-changeable). Instead, let’s try to understand and respect one another. The infamous election of 2016 demonstrated that each political party is quite capable of demonizing the opposing party’s candidates and supporters. Historically, that might be an American way, but let’s not make it the American way.
--Let’s all break the rule saying you can judge a person by their skin-color and accent. I read an essay by a woman who opined that black children are confused when the symbol of Christmas, Santa Claus, is portrayed as a white man, an old white man, by the way. (Really, Santa is the symbol of Christmas? But I digress.) Instead, we should replace Santa with a penguin. Really, a bird that kidnaps other penguin’s chicks and abandons them to die, bird so ill-tempered that you risk injury if you get too close, should replace that “jolly old elf?” How about saying, “When you get older, you’ll understand that the Santa you see at the mall is an advertising ploy, so sometimes he will be white, sometimes black, sometimes Asian.” Not a good approach to a five-year-old? Maybe, it would be a great opportunity to just say, “That Santa is a reminder there are good white men.”
Seriously, I know systemic racism feeds an expectation of whiteness when we imagine our heroes, but while blacks, Latinos, and Asians face the brunt of racism, whites do not have a monopoly on prejudice. Let’s all refuse to stereotype and make assumptions about others.
--Let’s all break any rule that insists the past inevitably limits our present and future. No one can deny our childhood experiences, the mistakes we made as young adults, or our failures can impact us. But need they rule us? Psychologists and counselors are asking if the long months of isolation during 2020 will permanently mar our capacity to interact and to enjoy life. Doubtless, we won’t quickly forget the past year, but need its pain always be with us like the ache of an unrepaired tooth? I don’t think so.
Remember, Naomi, Ruth’s mother-in-law? She, her husband, and their two sons had moved to Moab to escape a famine. Both boys married, then Naomi’s husband and her sons all died. Returning to Israel, she told her friends, “Do not call me Naomi. Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made me very bitter.” She was so convinced her past would control her future she changed her name to reflect her profound sadness. But she would learn that trusting God could give a new hope. Naomi would become the great-grandmother of Israel’s most famous king.
We don’t have to let the dark days of the past year, darken our new days. We can embrace hope. We don’t have to let the hurts of the past dominate our present. We can practice forgiveness. A Chinese Christian whose father had been persecuted under the Maoist regime refused to remain bitter, saying “we Christians forgive the sinner and move on to the future.”
Maybe you can think of some other "rules" you need to break.
