Disciples, Apostles, and Saints!
As hundreds of Episcopalians from all over the country (and beyond!) gathered in Louisville last week, I doubt many felt completely alone. Even my friend, Layla, who wore disappointment like sackcloth for the Palestinian people knew that her aspirations were dependent on legislation and persuasion. That we need shared commitments to realize a ceasefire.
I worry about that sensation to go-it-alone. It is always the ultimate desire in euchre; it means you have a near-perfect hand. A hand so good that you don’t need a partner. And if you win every hand, you get twice as many points. As a game, euchre rewards the delusion that we don’t need other people.
The same goes for literature and pop psychology. We know that William Golding’s 1954 novel, Lord of the Flies is fiction. And yet we treat its premise like fact. That people, when stuck together, do horrible things. History proves the opposite. When a group of young boys were stranded on an island, in a true-life story they created civilization. It didn’t erode. They saved each other. They were dependent on each other.
Our tradition is built around mutual dependence. We are dependent on God and one another in the same way that we are called to love one another.
Perhaps it is because we know our dependence that we lionize independence. It seems more like a willful forgetting, though. Like a deep desire to push away or distrust. Our work is not to distrust, but to figure out how we might learn to trust.
With love,
Drew