Finding Wonder in Times of Distress
Individuals can do little beyond voting to affect the nation's direction; but by rediscovering wonder and reconnecting with neighbors, we can rediscover the glue that holds us together.
By Martin Davis
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
On Election Night 2000, I was in National Journal’s then-cupola-topped office building at the corner of M and 15th streets in Washington, D.C., expecting a late night. That late night turned into a month-long marathon that ended when the Supreme Court handed down its decision on December 12 that gave the presidency to George H.W. Bush.
The entire staff was put up in hotels that Election Night so that we could continue to work the story throughout the night. The following morning, before heading back to the office, I made my way to the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle.
I was drawn not by the facility’s religious significance, but because it had become a gathering spot for anyone in Washington concerned about the implications of a very contentious election and how it would ultimately play out.
Inside the stately cathedral I saw prominent officials, colleagues, and countless unknown faces entering and, as did I — a nonreligious American — just sitting. Contemplating.
A quarter-century removed from that election, that day and those events feel tame by comparison to the election of 2020 and the one that the country will undertake on November 5.
Even before the presidential candidates were selected this year, the press, the political parties, and those whose careers are tied to monitoring and executing elections were on edge. That anxiety has now seeped into the general electorate, and not without cause.
These are, indeed, uncertain times.
And these are times that call upon us all to seek our better natures.
I’m hardly alone in making this appeal.
Danielle Allen’s recent piece in the Washington Post, “This new map can help us heal our democracy,” outlines the National Civics League’s Healthy Democracy 2024 map. It captures what Allen calls the “Green shoots of democracy … growing all around us, if we care to look.”
To date, the project has mapped over 2,600 organizations in 20 states that are advancing “civic engagement to create equitable, thriving communities.” The organizations cross political, ethnic, religious, and identity barriers. They share a goal of strengthening America’s “social capital” — an expression that sociologist Robert Putnam describes as “connections among individuals – social networks and the norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness that arise from them.”
Finding Trust, and Peace
For a half century now, Americans have been chipping away at social capital, the glue, as Putnam discovered, that holds us together. The anger, distrust, and hostility that we see in our elections right now are just the most-obvious example of the effects of this decline.
Ironically, the man who mapped America’s decline by tracking the country’s increasing isolation is optimistic about the future. In part because the country has been here once before, during the Gilded Age.
And in part because of what the Healthy Democracy map is capturing.
If COVID accelerated our social deterioration, it also woke up people to the importance of once again meeting face to face and beginning to work with one another to rebuild trust among neighbors and our democracy.
Here in Fredericksburg, St. George’s Church will do its part to help us rebuild our social capital by the simple act of being present on Election Day. The church will be open from 8 am - 6 pm for anyone who wants to come in to pray, talk with staff, or just sit and contemplate.
“There’s so much anxiety right now,” Rev. Joseph H. Hensley, Jr., rector of St. George’s, wrote in a press release. “Prayer can be a time to lay that burden down so that we can, with grace, take up the continuing work of loving our neighbors and pursuing healing together, no matter who wins.”
That focus on neighbors, and connecting with one another on the more-personal level, is the key to building social capital.
But so, too, is something else that Hensley had to say. “We hope that having the church open to all in love on Election Day is a chance not only to pray about this important time of decision for our nation, but also to abide in the presence of the Divine with a sense of wonder.”
The morning after Election Day 2000, sitting in the pews of St. Matthews, it was wonder that strengthened me to return to work covering a trying event. That sense of wonder has continued to carry me through the various challenging times that have confronted me — as they confront us all — throughout my years.
Whether we be people of faith, people of doubt, or people of no faith at all, discovering that sense of wonder is important — perhaps more now than at any time in recent history.
In these closing weeks, do what must be done by going to the polls and making your voice heard by casting your vote. Once done, lay the worries aside and take the more important step. Go to St. George’s — or wherever you find peace with others and wonder in the world — and meet your neighbor; rediscover your sense of wonder.
As Hensley rightly noted, “loving our neighbors and pursuing healing together” is our true work.
That’s what I learned 24 years ago, sitting in the pews of St. Matthews.
This November 5, may we all rediscover our true work, and our sense of wonder, anew.
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