Epiphany: You do not get to happiness by chasing it, nor to unity in politics by repeating the word, any more than draft animals are satisfied with a dangled carrot. No, happiness and political unity – even if we need a little tension – take hard work, patience, and faith.
These days, two lines of thinking collide in my mind. The first is how strangely focused we are on others, often asking – and I do myself – “What is wrong with those people?” Differences are so profound we say to ourselves, “why bother?”
The second line, call it the flip side, is how little we recall our own strength, individually and as a nation, and where happiness, unity, and things of high purpose originate. They do with us.
Today, driven by different views of America, a radically diverging sense of what things mean, what responsibility, work, rights, law, biology, history, and principles mean, we are like two ships passing in the dark, barely connecting. Some protest everything, default to violence, others are weary of it.
What is the result? With increased frequency, people are saying and doing useless, provocative, mindless things, some resentful when facts, law, history, and faith are raised, consoling themselves with belligerence, while others – expecting facts, law, history, and faith to count – grow dismayed.
This is all a very bad turn, one that misunderstands how the world works. Each day, more people excuse their own thoughtlessness, lawlessness, reactiveness, and even political violence, shrugging and giving up on hard work – required to get America back to happiness and unity.
They forget – let me say it again, as I often do – that America is not an accident. America was forged in the hot furnace of controlled resolution of big differences, by daring to have the uneasy conversation, by risk taking, sacrifice, endurance, hope in something better, a republic that works.
Somehow, we have forgotten that America is – was, is now, will be – a reflection of mutual trust in each other’s reasonableness, decency, and courage. We are in fact just a huge, unending gamble, a massive bet on humanity’s ability – our ability – to control heated differences, live together.
The American Dream was always about risks, sacrifices, having hope in the storm, pride in getting along, resolving billions of differences, prioritizing “the hard” – the hard work of happiness and unity – over vilification and violence. If we lose that fundamental understanding, we slide fast.
Candidly, America was built on “the hard,” gambling on our ability to see good, come to a consensus on things evil, address or convert evils that divide us, argue heatedly without violence, and accept when we were wrong, looking for whatever path took us to higher truth. That was us.
Put differently, what bothers today is how we are unlearning core lessons, including that America was built on hard work, resolving differences, and giving and earning respect in constitutional context. When lawlessness and thoughtless overtake lawfulness, thought, humility, and respect, watch out.
When we lose our balance, focus, appreciation for seeking truth and its origins, forget how to interact as citizens of a republic, we slide. We need to pivot, stop becoming two nations, understand our proud past, start applying it to preserve the future. That is how republics survive.
The second big thought – the flip side of the coin – is reflection on ourselves. Our society is dumbing itself down, acting like adolescents, letting politicians with no maturity, self-discipline or patience, sure they are right, caught up in uncontrolled anger – influence us to forget our own bearings.
The best lesson – even for those not biblically inclined – is that of Job, one man’s extraordinary example, willingness to endure the hardest things in life for truth and faith, looking at himself anew, enduring tragic personal loss, condemnation, mockery, and grief, while never losing hope.
Maybe your own personal example, a place to go for hope, is not Job, but some friend or relative who – in years gone by – personified unwavering faith in the face of grief, or sacrifice, or risk taking for high purpose, or maybe just a relative who summoned all he or she had to fight for the right. In any event, half the battle is teaching others by earnest example, the other half reteaching ourselves.
In mindless times, finding wisdom is hard. Happiness is not about chasing it, nor unity about repeating the word. Happiness and some semblance of unity will take work, patience, and faith.
Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, Maine attorney, ten-year naval intelligence officer (USNR), and 25-year businessman. He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (North Country Press, 2018), and “Cherish America: Stories of Courage, Character, and Kindness” (Tower Publishing, 2024). He is National Spokesman for AMAC. Today, he is running to be Maine’s next Governor. BobbyforMaine.com
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