As a proud UNC Morehead-Cain Tar Heel graduate, as well as a patriotic American at this stage in our up and down turbulent history, I was reminded today of a famous literary passage, well worth reading slowly and pondering anew:
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only." Thank you, Chucky D.
I keep coming back to Plato's insistence that rarely are things exactly as they seem. And rarely are things stable. Then I'm reminded of the Stoic insistence that what in the end matters most is what's inside us, more than what's outside us and around us. Life is supposed to be an inside-out movement, bringing wisdom and virtue, and love and care to a needy world as we can. And as to the world itself, I keep reminding myself that you don't have to see a way for there to be a way. The only enduring win is the internal victory we bring to each day.
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