People all around the world watched the inauguration of the new president of the United States of America.
Most of us, I expect, watched mainly Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. We watched Biden take his oath of office with his hand on a family Bible.
Biden is only the second Roman Catholic president; the first was John Kennedy. That speaks volumes about the dominance of one branch of Christian religion in American politics.
We watched Kamala Harris’s radiant smile as she became, not just the first non-white woman to be vice-president, but the first woman. Period. That too speaks volumes about American politics.
We watched Lady Gaga sing the national anthem, without vocal pyrotechnics. We watched 22-year-old Amanda Gorman read a poem of aspiration and inspiration.
Occasional glimpses
But I wonder how many of us watched the troops, occasionally visible in the background.
There were 25,000 of them. From all over the country. They stood guard over 25 miles of fences, 10 miles of concrete barriers, to keep public spaces anywhere near the inauguration bare and empty.
Donald Trump bragged that his inauguration was the greatest the nation had ever seen – even though photographs showed it was distinctly smaller than Barack Obama’s.
Joe Biden can claim the opposite – that his inauguration was the smallest ever. The Washington Mall was deserted. Instead of thousands of people, thousands of flags marked the thousands who had died of COVID-19.
The troops were there because of widespread fears of an insurrection. Fears that the unruly mobs stirred up by Donald Trump might try to storm the inauguration ceremonies, might even attempt to assassinate the new president.
The troops’ body language suggested those fears were unfounded.
Despite their guns and camouflage, they were not on high alert. They stood around, chatting casually, shifting from one foot to the other, like adults at a playground watching the children perform on their swings and slides.
Different setting
I contrast them with the British troops I witnessed in Northern Ireland, during that country’s “troubles.”
I rode with some patrols – the only person in an open vehicle not protected by a flak jackets or helmet. I felt like the bullseye on a target.
Periodically, the soldiers ordered me to crouch down; we were passing through known sniper territory.
In downtown Belfast, every intersection had a soldier on all four corners, prone, rifle steadied on a rest, aimed down the block. All day, every day. They weren’t armed with truncheons or shields, tear gas or rubber bullets. They shot to kill.
Soldiers marched back to back, one facing forward, the other facing backward, matching step for step. No soldier ever left his back undefended.
Shoppers were physically frisked before they got through a barrier gate. Checked by a metal detector. Purse or briefcase opened, searched.
The tension was constant. Everyone knew that the person beside you, behind you, before you, who looked just like you, might be a fanatic intent on murder and/or mayhem.
In an internal war, there is no such thing as a safe place.
In a pub, I sneezed. I tend to sneeze loudly and explosively. Two people dived for cover. That’s what it’s like to live in a country divided against itself.
It’s not about armies neatly lined up on opposite sides of a field in Appomattox. It’s about guerilla war, where everyone is a potential enemy.
Anger, yes. Insurrection, no.
The body language of the troops in Washington DC was clear. Regardless of the rhetoric fomented on Fox News or Facebook, they didn’t sense a war going on in America.
Maybe they’re right. There is no underground army hoping to resurrect the Civil War.
The mob that stormed the Capitol on January 6 was a bunch of 40-year-old teenagers, on an adrenaline high, egged on by Trump’s money, ego, and henchmen.
Dissent, yes. Dissatisfaction, yes. Anger, yes.
Insurrection, no.
The U.S. may have a minority of white males, upset that their traditional dominance in American society is being eroded by women, immigrants, and Americans with darker skins.
But it is nowhere near half and half pitted against each other.
“The forces that divide us are deep and they are real, but they are not new,” President Joe Biden told the nation.
“We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace,” said poet Amanda Gorman.
Both conveyed hope for the future. But the most hopeful sign may have been the relaxed body language of the troops occasionally visible in the background.
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Copyright © 2021 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups encouraged; links from other blogs welcomed; all other rights reserved.
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YOUR TURN
I wrote last week about coincidences. Leslee Whalley prefers to call them “Godincidences, when something happens or you read something or meet someone or hear from someone, just when you need it or least expect it. God finds a way to get his/her message to us in some interesting ways. I also believe God puts people in front of you to answer your prayers or concerns. We just have to be open to it when it happens and, like you said, decide what to do about it.”
David Gilchrist shared a coincidence, 25 years ago, of meeting an old acquaintance unexpectedly stranger in a totally foreign city, in a restaurant neither had been to before – who just happened to be trying to contact a mutual friend. “I was able to put them in touch. He died within two years. So -- was ‘God’ (again, however we understand that Name) using me to answer his prayer? Like you, I don’t believe that God orchestrates everything that happens in the world: but does seem to have some ‘influence’, if we choose not to ignore our ‘hunches’.”
Laurna Tallman commented, “Nothing says ‘God with us’ more powerfully than timing. Getting to the Red Sea in the nick of time. Being born when there were wonders in the sky tracked by the sages of Zoroastrianism. Waking in the middle of the night before the fire in your child’s bedroom has caused harm to him or to the house and the rest of the family.
“Some people walk from miracle to miracle their entire lives the way Jesus did. He shows us that even the murders (His, the thieves with him, the Innocents, the martyrs to come) contain fulfillment. And that there is a bigger story than life as we cling to it. I think P.D. James tries to do that in her writing. Because every life matters, the precipitous death deserves investigation – by the finest of minds and against all odds.
“I believe the ever-living Joan has something to do with your epiphany. I share her love of mystery stories and have tasted many of the authors she feasted upon. Is she trying to say something to you about the greater mysteries that you contend with?”
“I am sure you have had several puzzling coincidences during your life,” Bob Rollwagen wrote. “You were in the middle of an interesting personal memory project when this one occurred.”
Bob described a coincidence of his own: “I was walking down a side street from a parking lot, a short cut, to catch up to my family, on our way to tour a cathedral in Paris, France, when I bumped, literally, into a cousin and his family going in the opposite direction. We all altered our plans and enjoyed some time together in a wonderful cafe. Who knew? What are the odds? We had not seen them for several years.
“Life has these moments and I enjoy them for what they are. Coincidence. I think God uses the pronoun ‘they’ – that’s what my grandson thinks (age 6).”
James West admitted that “The Children of Men is one of those ghost books on my shelf which I will probably not read any time soon. I really believe that we cannot get beyond Albert Einstein’s quip, perhaps said in exasperation, ‘God does not play dice with the universe.’ We are here to make the best of what we are given, believing that God walks with us, placing one foot in front of the totter. I believe that that is what if means to follow Jesus’ invitation, ‘Follow me!’ or as John remembers it, ‘Come and see’.”
Michael Jensen liked my closing statement about opportunities: "It’s up to us to decide what to do about them."
He wrote, “We make choices. My over-all New Year's resolution is to make better choices today than what I did yesterday. And God gives us plenty of opportunities. I believe, as I think you do, that we have more opportunities and even inspirations than we recognize or act upon. The date in the book is an unbelievable coincidence. I don't know what significance it might have -- unless it is to make us, through your blog, more aware of opportunities.”
Ted Spencer applies scientific skepticism. I had said that “coincidences defy credibility.” Ted agreed that “They do, indeed, despite their verifiably random nature. Odd, humans imposing, as we do, identifiable logical shapes on displays of random blotches, yet being gobsmacked when something sorta logical happens if we don’t expect it. Why shouldn’t you have read that sentence on 1 January 2021? But I felt the shiver too…”
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TECHNICAL STUFF
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PROMOTION STUFF…
To use the links in this section, you’ll have to insert the necessary symbols. (This is to circumvent filters that think some of these links are spam.)
Wayne Irwin's “Churchweb Canada,” is an inexpensive service for any congregation wanting to develop a web presence, with free consultation. http://wwwDOTchurchwebcanadaDOTca. He set up my webpage, and he doesn’t charge enough.
I recommend Isabel Gibson’s thoughtful and well-written blog, wwwDOTtraditionaliconoclastDOTcom. She also runs beautiful pictures. Her Thanksgiving presentation on the old hymn, For the Beauty of the Earth, Is, well, beautiful -- https://www.traditionaliconoclast.com/2019/10/13/for/
Tom Watson writes a weekly blog called “The View from Grandpa Tom’s Balcony” -- ruminations on various subjects, and feedback from Tom’s readers. Write him at tomwatsoATgmailDOTcom (NB that’s “watso” not “watson”)
ALVA WOOD ARCHIVE
The late Alva Wood’s collection of satiric and sometimes wildly funny columns about a mythical village’s misadventures now have an archive (don’t ask how this happened) on my website: http://quixotic.ca/Alva-Wood-Archive. Feel free to browse all 550 columns