By Fr. Theophan Mackey
Rector
Saint Job of Pochaiv Orthodox Church

My pottery classes at the Fuller Lodge Art Center seem to be going along swimmingly. It is, or at least it is my objective to make it, a peaceful respite, a calm haven and oasis, far away from the stress and cares of this life.

Attempting to acquire a new manual skill gives the mind something external and well defined to concentrate on. And one, difficult, but entirely surmountable job is a veritable vacation from the chaotic whirlwind that is most of our internal lives. All the things we cannot control, but still struggle with all our energy to hold on to … slip away for a couple of hours, when all we have to control is two pounds of inanimate mud.

I have watched a sense of impending doom grow in my eldest child, a teenager who is plugged in to all that is happening in our world. We have had many conversations where I try to help them pin down and define what they are anxious about. For the most part it ends up being a nebulous existential angst, which I recognize as similar from my own teenage years. Although I will admit there are many, bigger things to worry about now than there were 35 years ago.

What are we to do about assassinations and mass shootings and international war and national partisan politics? Thoughts and prayers, as much as I believe prayers to be vital, are just not cutting it. There has to be something else we can do.

I propose that there is.

Start here. Start small. First take inventory of the one person that you have control over. Get that person under control, healthy, gentle and kind.

Second, take care of the people around you.

Yes, vote your conscience, protest if you feel the urge, and for goodness sakes, write to your congress person. But the effects of these things are huge and nebulous and we’re never quite sure of the ultimate result.

Bring it down. Bring it closer.

How many times, how many people failed those broken souls who take others’ lives? How isolated and distant are they from humanity?

Yes, the mental healthcare system (and the physical healthcare system for that matter) are broken, and yes, guns are too readily available to those who have mental issues.

But for a moment, nevermind the systems. Who failed? Society failed. And WE are society.

Overwrought disengaged parents (if not worse), overworked underfunded teachers, distracted and distant friend groups, unrealistic advertising and ubiquitous, nihilistic entertainment. It is a perfect storm for producing violent dysfunctional citizens.

We must not let ourselves be part of this dysfunction.

Take care of the people that you encounter, IRL, every day. Take an interest. Smile. Say, “Hello!” Get to know your cashiers, especially here you run into the same ones all the time, your servers, your nurses, etc.

You will never know how a small, seemingly insignificant kindness will detour another away from despair or anger. But small insignificant slights push fragile people closer to the edge, and that, we must avoid.

There is real, significant evil in this world, but evil is not a person. No person is the evil they do. They are broken, we are broken.

Let’s do our best to hold each other together so that we can all heal.