So be good for goodness sake…
Goodness and governance, we’re repeatedly reassured, don’t mix. Saints are losers – impractical, inflexible, intolerant of dissent. Politicians need to be pragmatic, none too squeamish, unjust, if that’s what it takes.
Sneering epithets pepper the pious pol: goody-goody, holier-than-thou, wet blanket, momma’s boy. Piety pities while pretending not to – “poor lost souls” – screw that! A worldly player is no better than he should be. Iniquity’s nifty if it gets you what you want. (See America’s President-elect. See also, my new favorite fancy word: “kakistocracy.”)
In the thrall of career, I sneered with the rest of the guys. Real men did what it takes. Unconscionable compromises were OK – if they worked out.
Then something happened – to me and my world. Retired, I began to think. Jane and I went to Rome, where saints are rock stars. My pride pined for a new boast. In Rome, sandaled saints were revered centuries after their contemptuous contemporaries had vanished –sounded good to me. Reputation-wise who hit it bigger than Jesus?
God visited me. I’ve described this event – and pondered it – and wondered whether this ecstasy was victory – surrender – brain fart – or what? His house call happened, no question, and having happened can’t unhappen. Being better wasn’t an option but an obligation. And whaddaya know – it felt good – better than wangling, angling, grubbing. I quit trying to get somewhere, because I was already there.
But maybe God was just a private pleasantness, my little secret, comfort food.
No such luck. A vision of goodness opened my eyes to the rising tide of vileness swallowing mankind. I turned fulminous prophet willy-nilly. My species’ intelligence was making us stupid, suicidal. Help!
Goodness is never good. Only God is good. Goodness means striving in the direction of goodness, straining to do what’s right, though it’s hard. Good means honoring our betters, acknowledging our failures, glorying in our gifts. It means humility. “The only wisdom we can hope to acquire,” wrote T.S. Eliot, “is the wisdom of humility; humility is endless.”
Jimmy Carter was a good man, as good as we’ll ever get in office. He didn’t just say the right things, he did them his whole life long, uncowed by sneerers. He preached to us, which we didn’t like. “The erosion of our confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the social and political fabric of America,” he told us in an improbable speech. “In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, close-knit communities, and our faith in God, too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption. Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns. But we’ve discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning. We’ve learned that piling up material goods cannot fill the emptiness of lives that have no confidence or purpose.
“The symptoms of this crisis of the American spirit are all around us. For the first time in the history of our country a majority of our people believe that the next five years will be worse than the past five years. Two-thirds of our people do not even vote… There is growing disrespect for government and for churches and for schools, the news media, and other institutions. This is not a message of happiness or reassurance, but it is the truth and it is a warning.”
Wow. Ouch. The nerve!
I have visited Plains, Georgia. The humdrum modesty of the Carters’ home is everything you’ve read about. Just folks like any other.
Only better.
Go in peace.