In memoriam, John Lewis
In one day, we've lost two icons of the Civil Rights Movement: Reverend C.T. Vivian, and Representative John Lewis.
It's nearly incomprehensible that two good, decent, brave human beings, lights unto the nations, should depart us, when men and women of evil walk among us and seemingly prosper.
The question of theodicy is one which no faith has answered to my satisfaction: Why does a supposedly good God allow evil to flourish? Why does he allow evil to prosper and oppress his people?
Of course, for an agnostic like myself, I have part of an answer: Whether or not there is a God, ultimately our fates are in our own hands. The meaning of life is struggle. But it's not a purposeless struggle. It's a struggle to make the world more human, more decent, better for everyone. It is in our DNA to improve what we find, to make it a fit abode. This struggle is what Muslims call the "greater jihad": not the war against infidels, but the war within your soul, to make yourself a fit habitation for the Divine. Humanity and inhumanity struggle within us every day, every hour, every minute, and we constantly make choices on which side we'll fall.
I don't pretend to know what our ultimate fate will be as a species. But I take succor in men like John Lewis and C.T. Vivian. I take succor in men and women of faith and no faith, of those who struggle every day to make the world better, to heal the earth. These are the people we should follow. These are the people we should laud with television programs, and extol. Not athletes. Not game-show hosts. These are the pioneers, striking out to explore what it means to be fully human. These are the warriors of the soul, who fight powers and principalities with the power of love. Give me a woman who admits "I don't know, but I keep looking", over one who has a deadly certainty in her "convictions".
The giants are leaving us. But if we've listened, they never really will leave us. Their lessons will remain with us, as we take them forward, into the unknown, continuing to seek what they sought. The human condition is not one of final perfection, but of continual evolution. In the blink of an eye in cosmic terms, we've evolved from warring brutes to a species which is finally starting to recognize that hatred and violence will end this experiment. As another giant said, the arc of the moral universe is long, but it does bend towards justice. But it doesn't do so by itself. What men like John Lewis have taught us is that nothing happens without action. Without our agency, torpor and decline set in. We saw that in 2016, when it seemed that the entire world went mad. But, contrary to what those who traffic in gloom aver, the power is always in our hands. We have the power to rectify wrongs, if only we use it. It won't be easy, there will be blood, but that, too, is human.
The giants are leaving us. They've passed us their mantles. Pick them up.