And every stone shall cry

In praises of the child

By whose descent among us

The worlds are reconciled.

Reading the pundits after Apocalyptic Friday, you could be forgiven for wondering how the worlds of the NRA, Gun-Control Advocates, Tax Reformers and Tax Resisters could ever be reconciled.  Anger is coursing through the veins of lobbyists, Congress-people, and the media. Indignation is cresting at the moment in the year when we celebrate peace and goodwill to all.

It reminds me of a beautiful summer day when I sat in my car across from my apartment, having just fought bitterly with my wife.  I was thinking, How could the flower beds look so beautiful and the birds be singing blissfully when I feel so angry and misunderstood? What a waste of glory! I think it was nightfall before I could recover my perspective and proceed on with thirty-seven years of marriage, and yet the incongruity of that moment remains with me.

It is hard to forgive those who hold their principles against you, as though you were the thoughtless heathen and a threat to moral society.  They mock, not only your principles, but even your benign intentions.  They see you as a party, an advocacy, a hired gun, or an ideologue, not as a person with scruples.  They demonize you.

But that’s the problem with principles. They override facts.  You hang on to principle because it is immune to change. And it always sounds like virtue, even when it is stubbornness.  It keeps you safe in your enclave and the rest of the world in their unprincipled society.  The smaller the enclave the more stubborn the principle, a principle that defies reason and fairness.

In conclusion, I reiterate the sentiments of the protagonist of Silver-linings Playbook,

It is better to be kind rather than right.