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| A post card thank you note from the Sander's campaign for my donation. |
Acts 2:17 KJV:
“And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out
of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams…”
In spite of the fact that Bernie Sanders endorsed Hillary
Clinton (Trust me I get it, I absolutely understand it), I can think of no
other candidate, or for that matter any political figure, who has inspired me
more than he. I will explain why, but let me digress a little first.
I turned 60 in May
and I am becoming aware that I am getting old. It's not just that the number 60 is, or can be, a psychologically traumatic moment, but rather it is all those little signs that go
with this time of life like a sore back, or a where-did-I-put-my-keys moments and other things, like
visiting doctors who point out all the age-related conditions I have, and who regularly dismiss me and my complaints by saying, “you’re getting older.”
I mean people my age are trying
to figure out how retirement works and what they will do with their lives when
that time comes, but it often seems to involve a life of playing golf and
traveling the states in RVs, or playing euchre on Thursday night, with Bingo on
Saturday, and asking why the kids
don’t call often enough and so forth. Basically they're done. That's kind of the problem.
Sanders, however, doesn’t seem to even think about retirement, slowing
down, or taking his ease. He
turned 75 during the primaries and yet his energy and passion are like those of
a younger man. Sanders
dreams dreams--big dreams—dreams that will long out last him and affect our
country for years to come. He
stands in contrast to my own notion of what is to grow old in America. I find
that old people generally don’t dream dreams anymore in our culture—as if their days of
dreaming are done, and that, if they haven’t achieved their dreams by now, it’s too
late. Old people seem to think, "well it’s time that the next generation takes
it from here, I’m not going to be around much longer and as for me, I just want to take my
ease and enjoy what life I have left in peace." But I know, this is wrong. One must always work, fight, and struggle to the finish or lose everything in the end. That is the moral of the parabolic play of King Lear, or the movie about the warlord
Ran—one should never give up the fight—ever, you must be king to the end. In the words of
Dylan Thomas:
“Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rage at close of day
Rage, RAGE against the dying of the light”
I cannot think of anyone who has taken those words more to
heart than Bernie Sanders. Some
readers may not like his political positions, but I cannot see how they can
ignore his passion, and drive, his clear-cut, consistent positions over time. Even his rivals have shown respect for
his integrity and straightforward stance on political issues, which have
remained pretty much the same for decades.
In reflecting on the passage from Acts 2:17 quoted above, I have thought
that the pouring out of the Spirit (I’m using this in a metaphorical sense)
represents something that comes on like a sudden and unexpected wind to a ship
that has been stuck in doldrums for generations--that would be our political system here. In my mind, in this country, in these times, prophet has been among us and has called up the wind, the pneuma, and things have begun moving. What is surprising to me about this passage from Acts isn’t so much
that the sons and daughters, (or our millennials) prophesy or that those young men and women see visions—young people
are always idealistic and always have dreams and visions--but again I say what is
surprising to me in this passages is the fact that the old men dream dreams long after the days of
dreaming are done. If Sanders can
dream dreams at his age, it inspires me, it makes me want to fight hard against the dying of the light and to dream dreams too,
right down to my very last breath as I grow old.
