AMERICA -- ONE OF THE GREATEST STORIES EVER TOLD

‎0817 0355 -- ONE OF THE GREATEST STORIES EVER TOLD

America, a nation of many sub-cultures has been a self-proving experiment. If one takes a 10,000-foot perspective, one might see that a remarkable puzzle is assembling, before our eyes, on fate's great table. Every piece is fitting together to eventually depict the fascinating picture which fate has imprinted on the puzzle box-cover -- and which we are yet to fully see.

Take, for example, the African-American sub-story of the American Adventure -- a truly astounding one, among many astounding sub-stories, which are all richly inspiring to learn and crucial to hear, remember, refine, and retell. For each original grouping imparts richness to our history and bright prospects for our future.

1. I sometimes worried that emphasis on one's own sub-story might be exclusionary and work to counter the crucial effort and progress gained in unifying ourselves as ONE GREAT PART of ONE GREAT PEOPLE -- Americans! But EVERY trail of ancestry that led to our own births, in this blessed and much favored land, is worth treasuring by all descendants, along their individual and unique paths toward self-discovery and self-fulfillment. Everyone and everything played a part in what we are today.

2. No one need ever feel excluded in the study of each or all the cultures and subcultures that comprise who we are. As long as we remember that we are all indispensable to what is and what shall be. And, no one need feel guilt or shame or even anger over that which was done long before anyone, now living, was ever even thought of -- much less over which they have no control. Even those generations, most directly affected, had little control over the sweeping tides of history -- until the issues came to a head, in 1860. Here's what I mean.

3. The African-American experience is a spectacularly breathtaking sub-story indeed. A people brought here in chains, harshly degraded by bitter circumstances --- started out their path to full citizenship under enormous disadvantages which still reverberate and shape things, even today. The situation victimized everyone, of all races, and trapped all into fighting and enduring and recovering from a cataclysmic and bloody Civil War -- which was absolutely necessary to be fought -- in order to remove something so clearly immoral, yet so deeply embedded, such that only radical surgery could save "the patient."

4. This second great existential trial,  after the Revolution, (with many more to follow)  sorted out whether the nation truly meant its most fundamental and astonishing claim: "That all men are created equal" -- and even whether the claim was feasible and practicable in the real world. The fact that the nation was willing to tear itself apart over it, shows how high the stakes were, for both itself and, indeed, for the entire world. The fact that America not only won this fight for its very soul, but rose to become the "crown jewel" of the entire species, defines the very meaning of "greatness," to my eyes.

5. Imagine, a people cruelly dragged here and made to endure, for centuries, the crushing weight of an especially inhumane bondage. Imagine what this did to the souls of those who suffered and endured it. And to the souls of those who were complicit in the injustice. And imagine what this did to those who resented the injustice, but who were powerless to correct it -- "UNTIL GOD [or a kind fate, if your prefer], IN HIS OWN GOOD TIME," revealed to all what had to be done to lift it from our midst. And, who would have thought the wounds would have healed as well as they have? And, in the exemplary way that they have healed? And in such little time, on history's vast yardstick?

6. True, scars still remain. How could they not? Even today, there are people who begin the race of life, often under insurmountable disadvantages. Much remains to be done to level all playing fields. Yet, who can honestly deny that things are better and better as our great "American experiment" matures? How much time is too much, under all the circumstances at work?

7. And so, we find ourselves presented with these monumental realities. That it takes a great people to start citizenship, so terribly handicapped at the outset, then turn around to become full and contributing partners with the rest of the nation -- so quickly. And it takes a great nation of peoples to be able admit its mistakes, try to correct them, repair itself, and build on the lessons, in pursuit of a far better future for all humankind. And, in the doing, to create one of the greatest stories ever told.

8. Everything had to happen, exactly the way it did.  Else it wouldn't have. And, we wouldn't be able to know to say, "lucky, very lucky us."  Enormous rewards often entail enormous costs. Perhaps the greatest reward gifted to us by our ancestors is that they enabled us to all to see that "Stars and Stripes, Forever," just may be do-able -- in a prayer [or hopeful sigh of concern] that is surely being uttered by many thinking humans, everywhere.


David Nelson


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