Care: The Unifying Principle

Hurricane Harvey’s massive onslaught in Texas and Louisiana, and now Hurricane Irma’s powerful winds threatening Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas (with two more hurricanes in the wings) make Charles Dickens’ words real in our time:  “It was the worst of times.  It was the best of times.”  It is the worst of times because lives have been lost and homes and businesses destroyed.  It is the best of times because of the heroism, the neighborliness, and the outpouring of money and care that people and government are giving to those who have lost so much.  In the midst of the storms (and the wildfires in the West) comes an all-embracing and unconditional caring without regard to power, wealth, race, class or creed.  We’ve seen this outpouring through the media and we hope it will continue in the aftermath of these catastrophic storms.

Arnold Toynbee wrote:  “Love is the ultimate force that makes for the saving choice of life and good against the damning choice of death and evil.  Therefore the first hope in our inventory must be the hope that love is going to have the last word.”  Elton Trueblood thought  the word “Love” had become an outworn word in our time.  He chose to use the word “Care” instead.  Will “Care” among us have the last word?  Is Love really at the heart of all things?  It is my hope, my faith, and my dream that it is and that it will be the last word.

A sense of  community is displayed in the midst of all the various storms of life and my prayer is that this sense of “community” will continue to thrive when the storms subside.  The rejection of community is individualism, deified in the American ethos as “rugged individualism.”  This self-centered, ego-driven ethos says, “I made it—why can’t you?”  We have all bought into  this destructive and silly American falsehood that anyone who tries hard enough can make it.  It is all up to the individual!  This is just not so and it certainly is not so for those who have (through no fault of their own) suffered the devastating effects of Harvey and Irma.  They won’t make it, they can’t make it, without caring neighbors and a caring government.