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According to media sources, President Donald Trump recently said on his social media site that, “He who saves his country does not violate any law.”
In his allusion to himself as a savior, Trump’s hubris takes front-andcenter, a scary trait for any leader to possess in such exaggerated amounts, let alone ours.
By placing himself above the law, the president’s role does away with any lip service to legislative oversight by members of Congress and the courts. The jobs of our elected senators and representatives are now pointless, it seems, including those of Trump’s own congressional supporters.
Sounds like we have ourselves a king.
My heart is sick. Call it bleeding, if you’d like.
In my lifetime, even though the U.S. has had its share of problems, and all has not always been what it appeared, I have taken for granted the beneficence and the hope represented by the United States of America. Because that standing looks to be changing, I feel as though I’ve taken on a weight that I will never again be free of.
Call me a worrier. Say I’m taking on unnecessary ballast. I hope you’re right.
Either way, my mind has been swamped by a couple of ever-present literary passages in connection with the turbulent seas we’re navigating.
I don’t claim to be a Biblical scholar, which might be for the best, here, because it’s easy to get caught up in the weeds of trying to parse out precise meanings at the expense of viewing the overall picture. And the big picture found in the 18th chapter of the Book of Revelation, for me, is grim — actually, horrifying — but it’s one I can’t shake: that of a city or nation going down, one wherein no more musicians or craftsmen can be found, and where “the merchants [who] were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing.”
“Alas, alas that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness, for in one hour is she made desolate,” said the writer of The Revelation.
Weighing on me likewise is the imagery in the book of Moby-Dick. If you haven’t read it, here’s the short version.
Proud Ahab, the tormented captain of a whaling vessel (The Pequod) sets out, unbeknownst to his crew, on an ill-begotten mission to avenge himself on Moby-Dick, a great white whale that caused the loss of his leg many years before.
In his single-minded pursuit of the whale, Ahab rebuffs a plea from the captain of another ship, The Rachel, to assist in finding that captain’s son who, along with crew members, had been lost overboard in a recent whale hunt. The Rachel goes on her way, without help from The Pequod, weeping as she searches for her lost children.
In an ill-fated and epic battle of man against nature, nature wins. Moby Dick takes the mighty Pequod down, along with the prideful Ahab and all of The Pequod’s unwitting crew members. All but one, that is. Only the narrator of the story is saved, saved by The Rachel, who, instead of finding her lost children, found only “an orphan,” as the humble Ishmael described himself.
I’ll let you draw your own parallels. I’m still working on mine.
Maybe, like the mad Ahab, my mind has run amok.
This thing I know, however, because I’ve seen it played out firsthand: “God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble.” (KJV James 4:6).
Those noteworthy and humiliating moments in my own life assure me that I don’t want to see the principle played out on a worldwide scale.
As a nation, humility is not our strong suit, a character trait notable for its absence in the recent contretemps in the Oval Office.
If the worst for the U.S. (however you envision it) comes to pass, as seems inevitable, I’ve heard it said that, because of our collective pride, we have it coming.
I’d be hard put to argue, but I can’t find it in my heart to rejoice. Our ship has left port. Now, I think, is the time for sack-cloth and ashes.
Sheila Harris is a long-time Barry County resident and a sales executive and investigative reporter for the Cassville Democrat with a particular interest in environmental topics. She may be reached at sheilaharrisads@ gmail.com.
