23 Sep, 2011
As the constantly shifting fronts of darkness and light pause in equilibrium, I turn my head to each camp and seek out their virtues. The even days are cool and clear with enough light to manage our tasks but not enough to bring heat or boredom. The equi nights, too, are cool and clear, and their stars seem welcome to my waking gaze.
The evenness of daylight and darkness does not extend to our habits. We participate in both love and suffering, but their shifting quantities have no equilibrium. To sway the balance in favor of the former, we have to seek out the source of all love. When we know that we are loved, we can extend that love to others.
In the case of racial tensions in South Dakota, that love is most apparent in interaction. Love of neighbor requires interaction. It requires conversation and active listening. Where I found people who openly and regularly interacted the cultural “other,” there I found the subtle hues of understanding canvassing the monotony of ignorance.
This lesson applies to climate concerns as well. If so-called environmentalists never talk to their opposition, they will neither learn from them nor convince them of anything. If Christians stay wrapped in internal debate, they deny their purpose. If we allow the growing effects of climate change to pass while we grip to notions of liberal and conservative or Democrat and Republican, we will fail the interests of all. There is no love without dialogue. Love is exchange. It requires risking who we’ve been for who we can be. Though I shake in my shoes at the notion, give me the latter.
Until we meet again
more open to dialogue
than we thought possible.