On the lookout for our better angels for 2024

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I swear we have all dropped the ball. By all, I mean the human species. 

I like to imagine that when we first climbed out of the muck, or as some would believe, The Garden, and began to evolve, we worked as a team. We were in it together and we had much more in common than we ever would again. 

But it seems that as soon as our brains began to develop we began to discover ways in which we perceived our new species to have differences from one another. And rather than embrace the differences we chose to use them to divide us. We began to compete and judge and criticize each other.  “Like” groups banded together and weren’t satisfied until they had confronted other factions and attempted to dominate them. 

Time passed, centuries, thousands of years of arguing between neighbors, religions, countries, political parties, races, etc. It seems there is no one capable of spreading peace across the planet. And considering all we have to lose at this point in the history of humankind, I am devastated by the fact that there seems to be no solution. 

Wars are raging everywhere I look. Whether on the streets in cities, our college campuses, in the living rooms of families who share opposing opinions on everything from does God exist to should abortion be legal, but rather than discuss and accept that we might never agree on everything, isn’t it better to be tolerant rather than use weapons, both verbal as well as actual?

Even places of higher learning such as UC Santa Cruz are seeing great divisions among students when it comes to the war in the Middle East. Anger and vitriol are spreading on college campuses across the country. Universities should be places where open dialogues may take place, with all sides attempting to understand the opposing viewpoints. This cannot happen if each side is threatening the other. And somehow, power and control seem to be a bigger issue than religious differences. 

And speaking of religion, please. What the hell would Jesus say if he were to witness the total mess we have created? 

He would be out of his mind to come back to this. 

And angels, where are they? Aren’t we supposed to listen to “our better angels” and follow their advice? Where are they? Dancing on the head of a pin and ignoring what is going on everywhere? 

We need you now. Stop frolicking and perch on some shoulders. And if whispering in someone’s ear doesn’t do the job, then yell as loud as your angel lungs can handle.

I grew up in the 1960s. By the time I was in college I was listening to John Lennon sing “Imagine,” and I sang along with him fully believing what he envisioned might even come to pass. I so deeply believed that music would be able to soothe us that I was able to sleep soundly. 

When, exactly, was the last time any of us slept soundly, peacefully? I mean without help from pot cookies or medication. 

In 2020, when the world shut down and we were all able to share the same trauma, I thought, for an instant, that humans would recognize the threat we all faced and collectively come together. That no matter what differences we had they would no longer matter. That the first priority would be saving the human race. 

But even that threat was unable to unite us; rather, it divided us even further. We fought over masks. We fought over vaccines. We seem to be eager to pick a side on all issues and throw sticks and stones, bombs and bullets at anyone who disagrees with our opinion. 

Right now, a big issue is the changes coming to downtown Santa Cruz. How high should buildings be? Will low-income housing exist? And then there are the NIMBYs who say sure, build it, but not in my neighborhood. Or the issue of oversized vehicles parked on streets. That is a real trigger on Nextdoor. But just about everything is on the neighborhood site. Bicyclists versus automobile drivers, e-bikes versus everyone, lefty Santa Cruz folks and conservatives who would like to see our governor fail.

And what about the challenges of climate change? Shouldn’t the threat of our planet becoming uninhabitable shake us all to our core? Not even a year ago, my husband’s business in Pajaro was flooded for the second time in his career there. Capitola Village is still recovering from the flood damage last year. West Cliff Drive will never be what it once was. And down at Seacliff State Beach, the pier is just a memory. 

Shouldn’t we be inclined to lay down our weapons and band together to save our Mother? 

Again, I am so disappointed in our species. We must look like ungrateful idiots to those dancing, winged creatures. 

Perhaps they have been trying to get our attention, but the vitriol was so loud they could not be heard. Maybe they gave up on us and have rejoined the party on the head of a pin. Shaking their heads at our greed and stupidity. Awaiting a new species to come along after we have destroyed our own. I wouldn’t blame them. 

There was a saying we used when I was working at Santa Cruz Montessori: “Suffer the consequences.” If a child refused to put on a jacket or hat and then went out to play on a very chilly day and complained of being cold, we explained they were suffering the consequences. Their chosen behavior had come back to bite them in the bum. Of course, we are lucky here, since our temperatures never really get too cold. 

Now, we – all of humanity – are suffering the consequences of our behavior and decisions. History books will not be kind to us. And sadly, that, my friends, is what we will have earned. 

We celebrated Thanksgiving, when we declared what we are grateful for.  As we stood around the table groaning with bounty and held hands it felt as if we should beg forgiveness along with giving thanks. Each of us took turns speaking, but much of what was said included hope for a better world. That perhaps keeping our hearts full and our minds open and our sleeves rolled up we might do better.

Now, we have had Christmas to seek grace and we are edging into the New Year, 2024.

We once had Paradise, and it wasn’t enough. We have had thousands of years to evolve. And yet we have not figured out how to live in peace. How to practice the Golden Rule.  

Just over a month ago, hostages and prisoners were released in the Israel-Hamas war. Abigail Mor Edan, 4 years old, was one. I can’t get her out of my mind. She was returned not to her parents, whose deaths she witnessed, but to other family members. What will her life be? How does a child that age make sense of what the world has placed on her shoulders? 

How do we?