The Beauty of a Mess

A friend once told me that when he sees a lawn with tall grass, weeds in the garden, and even litter in the yard he also sees the probable evidence of someone with a busy life. Wherever work is being done, there is usually an accompanying mess. It’s inevitable. The key questions are: Why was the mess made? And, what are we going to do with it?
Politics in the United States appears to quite messy right now. Why? The mess is here partly because great issues are being wrangled and worked out by many. The mess is here partly because those who aren’t sure how to work it out plow ahead anyway, unfortunately, often like a bull in a china shop.
I have just begun to read Doris Kearns Goodwin’s great book “A Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln.” I wanted to read it because it’s about how rivals came together to accomplish something that changed the world. While Lincoln was President, he and others pursued the end of slavery, and quite a mess was created. A civil war through which many Americans divorced themselves from others, hurt one another, and killed one another all because they stood on opposing sides of the issue. In the end, Abraham Lincoln lost his own life over it. All of this was the “bull in the china shop” part of the mess. In the end, a new door had been opened, and is still being opened, to help us live up to a foundational belief of our nation: all people are created equal.
On page 60 of the book, Goodwin quotes Alexis de Tocqueville from his book, “Democracy in America.” He basically says that you can barely arrive in the United States before you find yourself immersed in the energy and furor of political discourse at many different levels and locations. That we have a vision, disagree about how to achieve that vision, and have millions of heated discussions about such things is part of the basic fabric of democracy and of our nation.
The “Why?” isn’t hard to figure, but the “What?” seems to be a bit more complicated. What do we do with ignorant name calling, from any side? What do with do with senseless acts of violence over issues? What do we do with widespread disagreement and disapproval of the way things are?
When a bull gets into a china shop and starts destroying everything, we don’t let it go and accept it as part of life. We do whatever it takes to corral the bull so that people, property, and the bull don’t get injured, damaged, and/or destroyed. We, then, take measures to make sure it doesn’t happen again. In other words, we believe in the possibility of a creative and effective solution. That the United States of America exists and has over 200 years of history is strong physical evidence that we have tremendous creativity and we can find effective solutions to disagreements. We can quote all the great ones, but can we put our feet to the street and live the way they did, beyond words?
When we see someone with a messy yard, house, life, etc. we can either believe there’s a good reason why and wait for the chance to help (if needed), or, we can live contrary to faith and country and treat them as less than human and unequal to us.
When we have disagreements in the arenas of politics, religion, life, etc., we can either listen to the other to find out why they feel that way, try to find common ground, agree to disagree, or even work out a positive solution. Or, we can live contrary to faith and country and treat them as less than human and unequal to us.
The beauty of a mess is always the creative ways we can make an effective solution happen. We can do it because life is a dream we live to make come true!