Let the ‘9’s be wild on this date, two days short of the 18th
anniversary of 9/11.
Never 9/11/01, the shorthand likely to hold for generations.
It is true that the professionalism of words and images is
mooted by the glorification of the self.
What is popular in terms of “messaging” exaggerates the individual. Her smarts, her athleticism, her wit, her knowledge.
We undervalue the drivers of ‘soul’: doubt, kindness,
empathy, and most egregiously, humility.
What is the phrase that long amused my dad? “I’m so good, it’s
hard to be humble.” What’s telling here is an awareness of the elusive objective:
humility. That’s the core of the joke.
Instead, today, to be humble is to be weak, to be unheard,
to be exploited, jeered at. Like that “SVU” episode about rape trauma. “I’m a
nobody,” the victim says, “are you a nobody too?”
In the fantasy of the episode, the rape victim is
victorious; we are given to believe that she has a chance to rise out of her
special circle of hell.
We are given stories, myths, that make us believe in society;
that an essential goodness will prevail if we choose to be essentially good.
Truth is not a factor; but love and faith are.
Next: Running for Your
Life: Every Other Day Since 1977
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