Said by a person discussing the heartbreak of a loved one with severe depression, it is a sentence with its own grace. Indeed, when caught up in the stress and strains one cannot see the craters awaiting all involved, with nowhere to really turn for guaranteed cures or even answers as to why this happens. It is lonely. It is hard. It haunts one for a lifetime according to the writer of the essay.
Does distance give something, someone, a piece of grace? Yes, in the sense that the hard, sharp and jagged edges of immediacy have been dulled a bit by time. The anguish of what coulda' woulda' shoulda' been will never leave, but at least the immediate agony is a tad dulled, to the point of enabling talk of the loved one with laughter, as well as with tears.
However, the question remains. Does distance allow us to see things through a different mirror, one of time? Does it, in fact, allow for truth to emerge, unobscured by the pressures of immediacy, a need to act, to fix, to condone or condemn? I am not sure. I have observed the pulling away of people from unpleasantness, the denials they use to safeguard themselves from the anxieties, the fears, the stresses that arise from unsettled conditions and situations. Particularly if the distance in time is not really all that great. People get tired of hearing about it, turn away from it, magical thinking, but there it remains - no grace indeed. In fact.
"President Trump continued to argue that the election had been stolen even though the courts didn't back up his claims," and "belittled and harassed elected officials across the country to get his way." Grassley added that Trump "encouraged his own, loyal vice president, Mike Pence, to take extraordinary and unconstitutional actions during the Electoral College count." "There's no doubt in my mind that President Trump's language was extreme, aggressive, and irresponsible," sharing his view that all involved in the attack -- including Trump -- "must take responsibility for their destructive actions that day."
"I believe the President bears responsibility, and that is why I urged him personally to call off those who were violently storming the Capitol last week." Hinson added, "I wish he had spoken up sooner, but he did not."
All of the above are statements made by Republicans regarding Jan. 6 and Trump involvement. Add a little bit of time to this tainted stew of politics today and we get this: "First of all, [Biden] didn't get elected, OK?" The crowd responded to Trump's buffet of lies by chanting, "Trump won! Trump won!" Grassley stated he would not be smart if did not accept the support of the winner. Tunes have changed, time allowing for a corrupting effect of distance, rather than a clearing up of the clouds of the time which often obscure the truth.
Apparently truth is irrelevant here.
In this case, distance is no help. Distance of short duration only has helped those who would bring us down, who would destroy democracy, change the path, the destiny, of the world. In effect, with their blind and crazed adherence to denial of fact such as climate change and the pressing demand to act upon that, their demented belief in conspiracy theories that are way, way, out there - well, the future of this planet is not looking too rosy.
Time has not allowed us grace here. It has not eased the anxieties, the depression, that becloud our future and our present. Will we be allowed time to clear it up, to accept its grace? Dunno, folks, just do not know.
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