There are all sorts of things that need saying about the
(misnamed) “Fiscal Cliff” negotiations, and about Barack Obama’s
perfidy pertaining thereto. There was an interesting column to
be written about former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue’s Solomonic
but not-entirely-honest report on the New Orleans Saints “bounty”
scandal. There was a great story to relate about a particular
entrepreneurial story that supports just about everything
conservatives say about economics and shows the danger of Obama’s
approach. And there’s a plethora of half-formed musings on politics
and culture that begged to be written.
Yet it seems insensitive to write about any of that right now
while every news show continues to focus so intensely on the
school-shooting tragedy in Connecticut. It’s not that this writer
can pretend it’s all so horrible as to leave himself too
overwrought to think about anything else; it’s just that nothing
else seems appropriate — either not important enough, or too
divisive, or otherwise somehow lacking in perspective.
Just the night before Adam Lanza’s Connecticut carnage, I
attended
Prichard Preparatory School’s “Christmas Celebration” just
outside of Mobile, Alabama. For a full hour, about 99 young black
children and one white child, all dressed immaculately in coats and
ties or skirted suits, sang Christmas songs, most of them overtly
religious rather than merely holiday-secular, before a church-full
of beaming parents, teachers, and supporters. The children seemed
truly angelic. The parents were so proud — not just of
their own kids, but of every child who stepped forward,
individually or in small groups, to perform. Nothing in the world
gives more joy than children at their best.
Likewise, for probably 30 years of the past 42, I’ve attended
the “Festival of Lessons and Carols” at Trinity Episcopal School in
New Orleans. As in most such ceremonies around Christendom, the
school children alternate Biblical readings of the Christmas story
with favorite hymns, all in a manner combining solemnity and joy in
just the right measure. In other forums (alas, no links remain)
I’ve told of how the Student Council at Trinity each year votes on
which charities will receive the proceeds from the offering plate
at the service — and of how, for decades, one of the charities
(the collection usually was divided three or four ways) always was
the “Village of Good Hope,” an orphanage in Korea, whose proprietor
always sent lovely thank-you notes beginning: “Dear Our Esteemed
Benefactors.” It always was a point of pride, and deep
consideration, for the student leaders to choose where to send the
collection.
I just found out today that this year’s offerings will go to
defray hyperbaric-oxygen treatment expenses for another
victim of a shooting, one Sandy Kaynor, whose wife Grace was a
dear friend of mine growing up. Kaynor was shot multiple times on
his front porch 11 weeks ago as he stumbled unknowingly into the
path of armed robbers who (apparently) randomly chose his car and
home to target. Kaynor remains seriously compromised; the attackers
have been neither found nor even identified.
Grace always had been active at Trinity Church — in church
youth groups, then church young-adult groups, and apparently at the
church and school after moving back to New Orleans after years
away. Since the shooting, her Facebook page has been a marvel of
statements of her continuing, deep faith in a loving God.
An observer doesn’t know what to make of these tragedies. A
writer who wants to write on other subjects can’t do so. A friend
or parent or supporter considers children murdered, children
singing, children reading the Word of God, children choosing to
raise money for treatment of a brutally shot parent, and the friend
or parent or supporter can only wonder at the capacity of children
to love and be loved.
It is their future that hangs in the balance of our political
fights. It is their world, bequeathed by the same God whose love
Grace Kaynor still touts, that we are saving or ruining.
On her Facebook page last Friday, Grace posted words from a
recent message from the Rector of Trinity Church, Henry Hudson. The
passage ended thusly: “This is not a spectator sport! We are
invited to get in, transforming the world and ourselves, by
laughing, crying, struggling, helping, sacrificing to help God win
over the lost and hurting.… I love the joy and celebrating of
Christmas. Remember those who are hurting, hungry, and sad. Give
generously to those you love, and generously to those who need
love. Let this generation answer the call to get in the game and
make a difference!”
In the midst of sorrow, we can either withdraw from the world,
or we can further engage with it in hopes of helping it heal. After
an appropriate interval, constructive re-engagement is the only
good answer. Let us all create villages of good hope. Let the
little children lead us.
