Happy New Year

Reflecting back on the past year, we seem to be an increasingly offended people.  We seem to be increasingly angry and annoyed by those around us, particularly when those around us seem to get such joy from being annoying.  Whether it is the opposing party in Washington or Springfield, MTV or A&E, people are really starting to tick us off. 

And granted, there is no shortage of really bad behavior.  This year our fellow Americans have been rude, ignorant, and often gross.  Those charlatans across the aisle have made terrible decisions that have most likely caused irreplaceable damage to our fragile republic.  Those “entertainers” on stage and in front of the camera have said things that polite people do not say, and made gestures that decent folk do not make.  Due to our seemingly abundant leisure time and media access, we did not have to look far this year to find something so offensive it merited posting and reposting, tweeting and retweeting, again and again and again and again.

Being offended, of course, is not new.  Our cultural ancestors became so offended in the last quarter of the 18^th century that they started shooting people.  When the shooting stopped they took a break and created a really impressive form of government, and then they started shooting people again.  As American history has unfolded over the last two centuries, it has really been mostly a series of arguments interspersed by dodging bullets.

In some respects, this arguing and fighting is natural, both biologically and culturally.  Like all animals, on one level we fight for limited resources.  As human beings accustomed to debate, on another level we fight for our ideas and ideals.  Without this struggle and panache for conflict, we would not really be who we are.  After all, before the majestic bald eagle was adopted as our national symbol, a much lowlier yet no less dangerous indigenous animal was often used as aggressive icon:  the rattlesnake.  Well before we minted coins with fancy Latin phrases or lofty inclinations toward God, a much earthier motto prevailed:  “Don’t Tread on Me.”

The curious thing about rattlesnakes though, is that they do not have a habit of just biting random ankles. They do not crawl around the North American underbrush looking for trouble.  Rodents?  Yes.  Nourishment?  Of course.  But a fight?  That’s just dumb.  Both rattlesnakes and bald eagles have better things to do than look for things to bother them.  They are usually pretty busy struggling to pass on their DNA.   

We are human beings, though, and admittedly, our existence is characterized by much more than mere survival.  We are not snakes.  We are not birds.  Sometimes, often times, we do need to fight for more than just our lives.  As moral agents, it is our responsibility to fight the good fight against the vices of this world.

But what, exactly, constitutes the good fight?  What ideas and practices are actually worth getting upset about?  The Gadsden flag motto was not, “Don’t Annoy Me,” or “Don’t Offend Me.”  It was “Don’t Tread on Me,” and getting “treaded” upon is not the same thing as being offended.  A snake that is treaded upon is in physical danger.  A snake that is offended is just being a cartoon.

           

 Thus, as 2013 draws to its exasperated close, perhaps we should consider a different approach.  Perhaps we should ask ourselves a new set of questions in 2014.  Instead of getting annoyed by other people’s bad behavior and “discussing” it into perpetuity, what would happen if we focused more on our own less-than-post-worthy antics?  Instead of being offended every time we turned on the television or logged onto the computer, what would happen if we quietly and diligently “tended to our own gardens,” so to speak, and dirtied idle hands making certain our own branches bore more fruit?

             

What might happen to our nation if we all focused more on the giant planks of wood sticking out of our own eyes and less on the specks of sawdust we see in each other?  If nothing else, wouldn’t we at least have better vision?