Month: October 2020

I have to tell you, right now, I am happy to be part of a tradition that has already been praying for the president consistently during his term and will continue to do so, especially in light of the news of his illness. There really isn’t much for me to have to decide or fret over in times like these. We just keep doing what we do. We hand it over to God. It has largely kept me out of the fray about just how much empathy or well-wishing I owe to whom in order to satisfy which version of what it means to be a good person in times like this. I honestly just don’t think on this day, in October, in the infamous year of Two Thousand and Twenty, that the right questions about who I need to be and what I need to be doing are found by arguing about my wishes or feelings. The empathy debate can be as helpful as typing “thoughts and prayers” on Twitter after a tragedy. More importantly, I think it does damage, less by the arguments but what, and whom, it keeps us thinking about.