“Be kind, for everyone you meet is carrying a heavy burden.”
Ian MacLaren
“There is not a moment in which God does not present Himself under the cover of some pain to be endured, of some consolation to be enjoyed, or of some duty to be performed. All that takes place within us, around us, or through us, contains and conceals His divine action. All simple souls must admire and respect one another, saying: 'Let us each proceed along our path to the same goal, united in purpose and by means of God's order which, in its great variety, is in us all.'”
Jean-Pierre de Caussade
The Trump trade blinked a bit today, as stocks gave up some of their phenomenal gains on doubts about the presidential ban on visitations from seven countries which had been identified by the prior administrations as high risk locations for terrorists.
While this act was sweeping and lacked finesse, operationally clumsy to say the least, the reaction to it was just about as dramatic, including tears. Well, that's politics in the 21st century. And I am sure we will see much more of this sort of thing over the next few years.
We are going to learn more about ourselves than we may have expected. There is nothing new in this; it is the particular experience of about every other generation and their own 'rendezvous with destiny.' How can we be content when the choices are between the 'lesser of two evils.' They are both evil, and many including me are not happy about it— but it is what it is.
Gold and silver were struggling to make some gains, and ended the sessions largely unchanged. Stocks managed to claws back some of their earlier losses. What a surprise. The warehouses are pretty much in a lockdown on the Comex. I find it to be rather uninformative compared to the real markets in Asia which unfortunately are a bit more opaque.
Remember that Wall Street has some seriously large stock IPOs lined up on the runways, and will attempt to hold it together until it can get them off the field and airborne.
Then we will see how the winds may blow.
Whether it may be divorce, drugs, betrayals, heartbreaks, serious illness, deaths in the family, bad deals, or whatever, what matters is what we do with them. These are the 'talents' that we are given, along with all the skills, friends, hard work and good fortune, and it is our job to make something with them.
If you have never lost you are probably not really playing the game, yet. Come what may, what matters most is what you do with it, all of what life brings that shapes who you are. You can try to deny it, to retreat into drugs, alcohol, narcissism, abusive relationships and the like, overloading your sense to dull the pain— but you can never really escape it.
I have a small painting hanging in my study, that was given to me by a good friend, teacher, and mentor, long passed away many years ago. He used to say to us, in all of life's confusions, keep your minds and your hearts focused on the one thing in life that never changes, the immanent presence of God in the Incarnation, the 'little white spot.'
So we may as well use it, all of it, all our experiences, to make the best of life for ourselves and especially for other people and His creatures, even if it is only in our simplicity as we are, in our loving acceptance of a higher power that loves us despite our own weakness and imperfections.
If you would have a worthy purpose in life, feed His little ones, the least of these, through whatever small ways and acts of kindness that you can.
Have a pleasant evening.
