“In the present civil war it is quite possible that God’s purpose is something different from the purpose of either party—and yet the human instrumentalities, working just as they do, are of the best adaptation to effect His purpose.”
That was part of Abraham Lincoln’s reflections in 1862. The Civil War was raging, the Union was losing and seeming to lack military resolve. While Lincoln was clear about the importance of the fight and ended giving his life for it, he could nevertheless imagine that God had Her own purpose in mind, and that whatever roles he, his generals, the North and South were playing, each convinced of their rightness, no one could guess what the divine intention was.
Again and again, I get inquiries about what to do now after Donald Trump’s inauguration. How are we going to safeguard migrant families, including their children? What about anti-racism work? Disparity between rich and poor? Fighting for mother earth?
I know never to look at the news before going to bed, so I don’t—but did Monday night, after the inauguration, only to scroll down one executive action after another that he signed. He might have gone dancing, but my heart sank as low as the cursor scrolling down, down.
I reminded myself: He’s doing what he said he’d do. No one can say he’s surprising anybody, certainly not this second time around.
I couldn’t sleep that night. It’s easy to strongly dislike Trump: his demeanor, arrogance, greed, and billionaire pals. And yet, he is the President through no accident. He was voted in in a fair election. He’s doing what he said he’d do. He’s a vehicle for something. What is it?
Some might say for racism, for fear and cruel intimidation of immigrants, white supremacy, the moneyed class. That’s one level; I think it goes deeper than that. Many people voted for him not because of those elements but for something else. What is that? What does he represent that they yearn for? What is he bringing to the forefront? What is his purpose in the history of this country and its future?
Which brings up: What is it that the Democratic Party missed? What have I missed, and continue to miss, about other Americans’ vision for this country?
I had this question back in 2016, gave it a rest in 2020, and now it comes up like an avenging ghoul. Thought you could put me out of your mind, eh? Thought you could deny me, ignore me, figure that things are back to normal, right? THINK AGAIN!
Many friends are asking, in person and on social media: Now what? Do we rush off to the streets to re-form the great Resistance, like we did 8 years ago? I attended the Women’s march that year, didn’t wear pink but had my sign. We’re not doing that now, maybe because we’re still not clear about what it is we’re resisting.
I know that certain people will be in trouble, I can see that already. But what was this election really about? What’s the iceberg hiding under the waves?
Is it that this country is so split in its vision for itself? Is that the reason I hunted up Lincoln’s thoughts on the Civil War? Again and again, I’m struck by the fact that Trump’s inauguration fell on the day we celebrated the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. You can’t make it up, only life has that kind of imagination. Two people with such different personalities, sets of values, one giving up his life for a struggle, the other convinced of his never-ending (and now God-given) superiority—and both celebrations meet on the same day.
So many discussions ask what happened to our democracy. Has it become a government of the wealthy, amassing more money and power moment by moment? Is the neo-liberal capitalist vision a complete failure? Is their time gone?
I read it, but a lot feels abstract. What is real? Our extravagant medical system, driven by the lack of will by almost everyone to take on big pharma (including the Democratic Party). The criticism of social media and the lack of will to regulate it. The fear of AI and the lack of will to regulate it. And, on this cold, cold day, the fear of climate change.
Lincoln says that God had some purpose in the Civil War that went beyond what both sides were fighting for even as he commanded those fighting to end slavery.
On one level, I want to continue the fight against discrimination of any kind. I have no doubt that immigrants are a force of good in this country, even as I’m aware of what different cultures they come from, some of whose values are not mine. We have to protect the earth and all its inhabitants. I also feel that becoming a member nation of big global institutions will help us tackle issues we can’t tackle alone.
But there’s another layer here. How did Donald Trump return, legally and fairly, to the White House? What’s going on here beyond rage and indignation? What undercurrent is there, like the flow of water I saw under the hardening ice? I can’t know that, I can only play my role, as Lincoln and King knew what their roles were, as maybe even Trump, somewhere, has an inkling of what his role is.
“… and yet the human instrumentalities, working just as they do, are of the best adaptation to effect His purpose.” You and I are those human instrumentalities. And often, especially now, it feels like we have to work in the dark towards some unknown goal. Perhaps that’s why I’m not rushing off to do this or that, because I’m still discovering what that role is. I’m still discovering what the nature of this struggle is.
Rage and indignation, and certainly resignation, don’t help me here. What does? Eyes wide open, a clear mind, maybe my age-old stubbornness, and continually asking, continually listening.
Eve Marko is a Founding Teacher of the Zen Peacemaker Order and head teacher at the Green River Zen Center in Massachusetts. She received Dharma Transmission and inka from Bernie Glassman. She is also a writer and editor of fiction and nonfiction.
Eve has trained spiritually-based social activists and peacemakers in the US, Europe, and the Middle East, and has been a Spiritholder at retreats bearing witness to genocide at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Rwanda, and the Black Hills in South Dakota. Before that, she worked at the Greyston Mandala, which provides housing, child care, jobs, and AIDS-related medical services in Yonkers, New York.
Eve’s articles on social activists have appeared in the magazines Tricycle, Shambhala Sun, and Tikkun. Her collection of Zen koans for modern Zen practitioners in collaboration with Roshi Wendy Egyoku Nakao, The Book of Householder Koans: Waking Up In the Land of Attachments, came out in February 2020.
Hunt for the Lynx, the first in her fantasy trilogy, The Dogs of the Kiskadee Hills, was published in 2016.
“When I was a young girl my dream was to be a hermit, live alone, and write serious literature. That’s not how things turned out. I got involved with people. I got involved in the world. Two things matter to me right now: the creative spark and the aliveness of personal connection. In some way, they both come down to the same thing.”