Essays in Idleness

On the eve of what should be a memorable inauguration, I am of course expecting paradox and disaster. Surely something will happen that no one could possibly expect, and if it is news, it will almost certainly be bad, for good news is seldom published.

I don’t, however, see how anything that is nasty and disagreeable will happen. For even if Communist China invades Taiwan, or Russia launches some of its boasted hypersonic missiles randomly into an indefensible Europe, I should expect things to end fairly well. Some of the world will certainly survive, and we will simply go on, sans Russia and China. But I don’t expect either Xi Jinping or Vladimir Putin to be quite so stupid.

Alternatively, no one will survive, in which case, we don’t have a problem.

Moreover, there are no asteroids currently in sight, and only Los Angeles seems to be burning. Even the next ice age would not seem to be looming in the immediate future, and surely, we’ve all given up waiting for global warming.

If something should happen to Trump, tomorrow, there is Vance, Musk, and now a few other Trumpians. Washington could freeze over, and perhaps also Hell, but that doesn’t concern us. Our countdown only begins at Ash Wednesday.

It is not optimism I am trying to show, but complacency. Those of us trying to exhibit Christianity, too, will realize that if there is God, and Christ, and the Holy Spirit, and this God indeed created the world and everything in it, things cannot end so badly. Or if they do, then, it will only be personal, to us. A glance through the lens of the James Webb telescope should convince us that our narcissism has been misplaced. We should get over ourselves.

Our fate is very definitely not in the stars, nor, really, in the care of any politician. The most tyrannical of them come and go, and the worst they can do is murder. (Many, though corrupt and annoying, are in fact perfectly harmless.)

We are either in the power of God, or, should He not exist, it is already decided.