Observing the war in the Ukraine, an impending climate crisis which threatens our future existence, and political brinksmanship that is tearing our country apart, it is difficult to prise hope from the ashes of what we once supposed would be a time of peace, prosperity, and good fortune for all. The earnest desire among all peoples in the wake of the second world war that mankind would never again permit a descent into violent bloodshed, and an abiding faith in human will and ingenuity augured grace. But grace, as we have come to understand it seems beyond our capacity.
At the center of Christian belief, Grace is the enduring promise; but forgiveness, even for our gravest sins, unearned but bestowed upon us, is a universal and fundamental hope. Among those who profess the deepest faith are those who cast themselves as the singular defenders of the one and only truth. For them, grace is a dispensation that magically excuses every transgression. Surely it is a perversity in the human spirit that we may claim absolution of our own actions yet deny it to others, seeking always to divide humanity into villains and saints. In truth we are neither.
I have been re-reading Sinclair Lewis’ Main Street, a novel that was written in the 1920’s but might as well be set in America in the present day. Lewis was not prescient; his novel was not intended to be a muckraking exposure of the ills of modern society but rather a fond if revealing picture of life in a small rural community. Seen through the eyes of a newly married, city bred bride; a well-intentioned though misguided reformer who is ill matched in a struggle for the town’s soul, Main Street portrays small-minded bigotry, self-important paternalism, and a sense of spiritual and moral superiority that exist today in any town, rural or urban. Among the ills which the good citizens of this fictional Minnesota community complain are a rising tide of immigrant farmers, maids, and workers, and socialist ideas, about which the town’s elite have no actual knowledge but plenty of strong opinions. It is a town of church going, self-reported Republicans, with the exception of a single Democrat, a Swede and handyman who is relied upon by the community’s upper class to keep their furnaces going in sub zero winters.
Although Women finally won the right to vote in the year it was written, Main Street’s females are largely cast as supporting players, consumed by card games, caustic gossip, and a thorough lack of self-awareness which they share with their spouses and children, comfortable in the belief they are God’s chosen. Yet despite this bitter picture, Lewis writes lovingly about their earnest if unrealized desire to do good, to support one another, and to ensure the health and progress of their community, which they hold above all others, especially the big cities which breed ill considered, radical thoughts about women’s place in the world, the economy, social and political reform.
It is tempting to dismiss this historic fiction as just that, were it not for the fact that the seeds of our current challenges are so starkly displayed. The people of Gopher Prairie are in so many ways us, but their sins, which are abundant, are not born of evil and their occasional acts of benevolence do not render them as good. They are a people in need of forgiveness, of grace. If they do harm it is not with malice but out of fear, greed, and insularity. When they do good, they are inspired by flashes of empathy, love of family, and pride in their community—whether deserved or not—qualities of our higher selves.
More than a commentary on morality or small-town life, Main Street offers fresh insight on the evolution of the human spirit. Against mankind’s history, 100 years is a very brief interval in which to expect moral and social progress of the sort we imagine. While we remain sadly short of enlightenment the world yearns for it amidst the anger, resentment and bitterness which fuel our present trials. We must instead view our progress against a larger frame, however it tries our patience, and sense of outrage at the sins of our past and present. Of grace we are undeserving but by grace we are at a cusp in human progress.
The choice before us, to devolve into chaos and depraved disregard for our democracy, and the rule of law, or to summon courage and find our better nature is a moment by moment question. It is never decided for once and done. Were we to respond to the summons as the fictional Henry bid his troops, by disguising fair nature with hard favored rage we will be 100 years yet or more plunged into war, watching our planet stripped of its defenses and humanity suffering. Today, this minute, we are called upon to act, with forgiveness but resolve, with compassion but unyielding resistance.
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