Nov 10 | It’s been a year

This post was first published on Twitter on November 9th, 2017.

 

It’s been a year.

A year of falsehood, gaslighting, hate, apathy, white male fragility, and murder. A year of protests, loud voices, undeniably beautiful strength and rage.

And as before, we approach a season of darkness yearning for light.

A season where the religion of capitalism explodes into an orgasm of cheap electric lighting and sugar and greed and booze and desperation because it knows how prophetic the true holidays really are.

Chanukah, where Jewish people remember a miracle of never-ending oil and the stubborn resilience of light in the midst of fear and oppression.

Mawlid, where Muslims orchestrate an outpouring of charity and food to remember the birth of the prophet (PBUH), beloved and giver of their greatest gift, the Qur’an.

Yule, where Wiccans and Pagans mark the [re]birth of the light which is never extinguished, and celebrate the eternal circle of life.

And Advent, that beautiful period of quiet expectation where we not only look back to that long-ago birth, but to the fulfillment of God’s kingdom and its radical justice.

The horrors of the year are not going to come to an end. It may indeed get much worse before it gets better.

But I am not afraid. Because I have seen the glory.

I have seen the outpouring of righteous anger and holy justice. I have seen the rising up of the oppressed and the turning of so many hearts. I have seen the refusal to stand down and be polite when people are dying.

I have seen a tide of hate and misogyny and racism and perniciousness and even evil…and I have seen the Holy Spirit running wild over the earth, calling the human creature to be more…and the human creature stepping up.

Don’t think I’m being optimistic. I don’t believe in optimism. I believe in hope. And hope has teeth.

Optimism exists outside of context, without reason. Hope exists only because despair exists.

And that’s what makes it stronger.

It can take a moment to crush optimism, but hope can withstand time, terror, even death.

And that’s what I got.