2020 will probably go down as one of the most distressing years in modern history. Political and racial strife in addition to the pandemic has led to a very divided nation. We all have been impacted by the pandemic in various ways, we lost a close friend and know of others that now are coping with the virus. Our division has caused bitter relationships, broken relationships, and has resulted in threats to our politicians and others; most recently the storming of the Nation’s Capital Building.
But we must also remember the good, the front line and EMT people; the essential workers; and those volunteers gathering and distributing food to the needy, those working to keep us safe or keep things operating day by day.
I have taken comfort in reading Ecclesiastes which sees the emptiness and futility of power, popularity, prestige, and pleasure apart from God. The word vanity appears thirty-seven times in Ecclesiastes and seems to express things about life that cannot be understood. Goals and ambitions pursued as ends to themselves lead to dissatisfaction and frustration. Life seems to be filled with inequities, uncertainties, change in fortune, and violations of justice. It is an intense search for meaning and satisfaction here on earth. Sounds like we could be now living under the same conditions!
May faith and wisdom guide our days and all ways lest vanity take us over! As Robert Frost wisely wrote, Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.
