The Celtic Monk

Dear friends,          For more than half of the voting public of these United States, it has been a rough week. My FB page is filled with disbelief, tears, rage, and horror expressed from across the nation— folks who are somewhere between uncomfortable or outright afraid.            I’ve read too much already.   Said too much already about this election.   I went from a sleepless Tuesday, to a tearful Wednesday, to an angry Thursday and a numb Friday.   By Saturday I felt like those drivers who slow down to see the crash…I just couldn’t stop watching, listening.   I woke up for the 5 th night in a row at 2:00 a.m. staring at the ceiling, my mind racing.   And I thought to myself, "think of something beautiful.   Picture something beautiful."            So this is sad, but for the longest time I couldn’t.   I couldn’t pull up an image in my mind of one sunrise or sunset.   I couldn’t find image of (one of all the photo’s I’ve taken) trees, or paths or birds.

        So as I sit down to write, I’m a little bleary eyed from staying up to watch the final two games of the World Series where my long-suffering Cubbies finally brought it home .         But as the photos and comments continue to fill social media, it occurs to me that there are lessons in this historic win for all of us--lessons we may sense but have not put into words.  So I have a quartet of options—you likely could add a few of your own.   ·          The plan was new.   ·          The key players are young.   ·          The leaders prepared. ·          The playing field, hostile. PLAN.   If you were listening, you heard over and over again that Theo Epstein was trying something new.   Building from nothing (indeed 108 years without a championship is pretty much that). He did not look backwards to a glorious past…to old ways, old rules, old outcomes. He was writing a new chapter looking forward and creating a never-seen-before path and future.