We’ve all seen them in one context or another: a mountain wall such as the one above, rising in the distance and appearing to block all travelers with its massive and monolithic bulk. We can’t imagine how we can traverse those steep sides or navigate the spiky summits without danger to life, limb, car, or fragile human body.
Yet, as we travel closer, what seemed monolithic is slowly revealed to be a multifaceted range comprised of layers of hills that conceal curving valleys. Roadways twist and turn to compensate, eventually reaching the other side without needing to scale any scary summits at all.
Henry and I passed the mountains pictured here on a recent trip to the Palm Springs area of Southern California (and I’ll be sharing more pictures of our visit on my Instagram account). As we made our way through the desert, I found myself realizing that this shifting sense of a mountain range as monolithic or multifaceted is a good metaphor for what we face in responding to the United States’ new administration’s radical and ruinous policies and pronouncements.
When viewed from a distance, the sum of these edicts and executive orders seems insurmountable. The collective monolithic bulk of it all can leave us feeling defeated before we even get close enough to engage in the climb. That’s intentional on their part. They want to overwhelm those who disagree with them and have us give up.
But that’s not the only perspective, nor is it life-giving. We can choose a different way. In the same way that constructing a roadway through a multifaceted mountain range involves persistence through a series of well-planned phases comprised of individual steps, the work to negate and dismantle the new administration’s edicts and orders will take time, effort, and expense.
This also illustrates why we as individuals can’t be expected to handle the whole. Instead, we each are called to do our part, as part of a broad and deep community. This might include calling our senators and representatives over and over, showing up at town halls, funding organizations that are taking the administration to court, and/or speaking up and taking action in other concrete and creative ways.
What is your part to do in this multifaceted moment?
I am finding it helpful that voices I know and trust* are echoing the same message: we are not alone, we can do something. Despite the intentional chaos there is a path and through prayer and action we will find it IF we don’t fall into the despair and apathy the administration is anticipating if not expecting. Thank you for your powerful voices.
*you, Diana Butler Bass, Rev Nadia Weber, Rev. Debra Asis.
Thank you, Joyce, and you’re welcome. I am honored to included in your group of trusted voices! This is definitely a time to lean on each other in community; they did not prepare for and implement this alone, and neither are we to think we can respond alone.
Peace,
Shirin
What happens if as you travel towards this insurmountable mountain, some of these plans actually work, will you acknowledge it?
Hi, Judy, and thanks for this question. I’m curious what you mean by “works.” I am certain that many of the many policies and pronouncements will “work” as they are intended to do—and if that means they are harmful to “the last and the least and the lost,” those without power and privilege in America, I will continue to denounce them. If they actually do help the majority of everyday Americans, I will happily acknowledge it.
Peace,
Shirin