Don’t Let the Light Go Out!
I sometimes wake around 2:30 in the morning when my mind is most vulnerable to the scary stories waiting in the shadows. Sometimes I am able to go back to sleep before the stories gain momentum, but other times I watch them slowly get a foothold and begin to terrorize me with nightmarish images. Donald Trump’s angry face is often the poster child in my anxiety closet. For me, he is the archetypal “bully” and I’ve always been afraid of bullies. These middle of the night thoughts are not rational and recede as morning comes, but they make me aware of my semi-conscious fear that the forces of fear, hate, and ignorance will triumph.
It does not help me to try to convince myself that reason, love, and wisdom will triumph. These qualities aren’t fueled by the potent energy that seems to fire the darker aspects of our nature. History is no comfort. Historically the fires of empire, greed, and fear have never been extinguished. They have been challenged, resisted, and even stopped temporarily, but have always returned. Here they are again, burning their way across my culture and the cultures of the world. It is perhaps possible that a new version of the Dark Ages will descend and the jackboots of bigotry will march through our streets.
These images are the stuff of my nightmares and may be somewhat irrational. But the world does seem to be divided between reason, tolerance, cooperation and compassion on the one hand, and ignorance, bigotry, greed, and hatred on the other. What the future may bring is not something I can control. Keeping the light alive, however, is not only within my capability but is also my most important responsibility.
In the historical Dark Ages, the light was kept alive in communities of men and women who dedicated their lives to copying, by hand, editions of books that had been banned and burned; by individuals who kept reading, thinking, and exploring; and by isolated schools which taught wisdom rather than propaganda. Eventually the light of reason and compassion, kept alive in thousands of small candles, returned to the world.
But in the eternal dance of Yin and Yang, the light can never be taken for granted. The time has come for a reaffirmation of depth in our lives, for intellectual discipline, for an affirmation of reason, and for a deepening trust in the goodness and compassion that lies within us. In a culture where books are being replaced by digital pixels and tweets are substituting for mindful consideration, Nancy and I have committed ourselves to preserving the book as a source of learning, pleasure, wisdom, information, and illumination. We desire, above all, to keep the light of knowledge burning in a world that sometimes threatens to tip into darkness and ignorance. We feel that a book, held in the hand, savored, appreciated, and slowly absorbed, is a potent antidote to the forces of mindlessness and blindness.
Writing, publishing, and binding books is our way of keeping the light alive. There are thousands of other ways. I urge you to find your candle. Light it! Keep it lit! Don’t let the light go out!
(And don’’t leave without listening to this video link to Peter, Paul, and Mary. Make this song your anthem for the days ahead.)
