“I’m not afraid of storms, for I’m learning how to sail my ship.” – Louisa May Alcott
No prizes for guessing which UK tabloid shouted this bleak headline at me while I was innocently minding my own business in a Surrey coffee shop recently. It reminded me of the fawning henchmen in the Glen Close version of ‘101 Dalmatians’ (Disney 1996), who has just been dismissed as a sycophant: ‘What kind of sycophant would you like me to be?’ he simpers back ingratiatingly.
‘How scared should we be?’ How scared would you like us to be, oh scare-mongering media moguls?
‘How scared should we be?’ It was an obvious reference to the shenanigans going in North Korea as they flex their military muscles by displaying and experimenting with a variety of intimidating nuclear weapons. Meanwhile, the apparently trigger happy incumbent of the White House has recently launched the not-so-subtly-named ‘MOAB’ on Syria¹ and signed a mahoosive arms deal with Saudi Arabia worth billions of dollars². There’s a curious reticence about Mr Putin in these scenarios and shadowy inferences (or is that, ‘interferences’?) about behind-the-scene, sleight-of-hand incursions into foreign politics, and a rather nervous China. By the time you add a dollop of Brexit and a snap General Election in the UK; several thousand refugees looking for sanctuary in Europe; the rise of the political Right; a smattering of malevolent terrorist attacks (are there any other kind?) – including just this week in Manchester – all manner of economic, political, financial and moral unravellings around the planet, and rumours of basic food and water security, you realise that there’s actually quite a lot to be scared about.
On the other hand, since neither you nor I can directly do much about most of it (though we all have a vote to use responsibly come June 8th of course), maybe we should get on board with the latest scientific pontifications about populating another planet³. We seem to have messed this one up pretty much beyond repair, so why not go and start over elsewhere… ⁴ Quite; I’m sure I’m not the only one to see a massive flaw in this plan even if all the logistics and helpful resources – oxygen and water for helpful starters – could be worked out.
‘How scared should we be?’ How scared would you like to be? If you want to be stark, staring terrified to the point of paralysis, breakdown and a long-term spell in your local psychiatric unit, I suggest you lap up everything the tabloids tell you, have a 24 hour TV news channel permanently playing and then trawl social media and the internet for every possible alarmist rumour, interview, statistics table and flow diagram you can find. Leave the house only to frequent premises where like-minded comrades can feed your worst imaginings and fan into flame the apocalyptic scenarios that plague your twilight hours. Make sure you rage consistently, if not coherently, about the injustice of it all; how you would run the world so very differently and how you never voted for any of these leaders anyway. It will make you feel better; briefly. I promise. Then batten down the hatches; mix a stiff drink, get your affairs in order and try not to think of all the other constructive, creative or relational things you could have done with your time.
If, on the other hand, this course of action (understandably) doesn’t appeal, you might like to channel your disquiet into spending some time with your family, mending any broken relational fences; cast aside the regrets, anger and disappointments of the past and find ways to help or encourage someone else. Sound lame? Perhaps; but in reality, the microcosm of your world and mine tend to be reflected in the macrocosm. You may not have plans to bomb a small country or express your personal agenda in spectacular self-destruction, but the chances are you may be holding a grudge against somebody somewhere (which they may know nothing about), but which is slowly eating away at your own peace of mind. You may be stuck in a prison of your own making by withholding forgiveness towards someone else – even towards yourself – or nurturing toxic bitterness. Alternatively, you may be confident that all this will pass, but your next-door-neighbour may feel lonely and afraid. Perhaps it’s time to get over your awkwardness and embarrassment and just be a friend to them, even if it’s inconvenient. It will be.
Are there things to be scared of? Yes, of course; always. Every generation has known overwhelming dismay at some point or another, in consequence of someone else’s governmental decisions. My parents knew the horror of World War II, the Korean & Vietnam wars and the tightrope that was the Cuban Missile Crisis, as well as the Falklands War. Many of my grandparents’ peers were lost in the carnage of the First World War. Their parents and grandparents experienced the Boer Wars in South Africa, and the Napoleonic wars before that. Their parents and grandparents… So it goes on. Every century serves up its lists of conflicts around the globe⁵. How far back will we go? The Punic wars? Sparta before that? The advance of the mighty Roman Empire after those?
Perhaps our degree of fear is somewhat dependent on how we view both life and death. People used to believe there were things worth dying for; some days it’s hard to find people who believe there’s anything worth living for. If death is the end, you will probably feel differently about world events from someone who believes that it’s just the curtain into the ‘real’ life in eternity. Does my faith – or yours – make me/us careless, reckless or realistic, focused? Read that again; it becomes more challenging as you give it room to percolate…
So, yes, write letters to your MP, your local and national newspapers; join protests, make banners and march wherever the wind takes you, but please know that world peace will never be achieved by committee, democracy or sheer will-power. As with so many things, it starts with you and me.
‘“Because you are important, everything you do is important. Every time you forgive, the universe changes; every time you reach out and touch a heart or life, the world changes…”’ – William Paul Young; ‘The Shack’
‘“In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”’ – Jesus (John 16 v 33)
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