As I write this, my wife and I are getting ready to fly to Rome, ahead of the group joining us for the first World to the Wise Cultural Tour since pre-pandemic 2019. We are grateful not just to be traveling again but to be able to take curious souls along with us. A number of our travelers have never been outside the country, and what a privilege it is to introduce them to some of our favorite spots on the planet. You can follow our adventures on Facebook (World to the Wise Cultural Tours) and Instagram (@worldtothewisetours).
My feelings this time, as I prepare to leave, are more complicated than usual. I can't deny that my spirits are somewhat dampened by the events of the week. Like many of you, I am at wit's end with the mass shootings in my country. And when you would hope that such a tragedy would bring us all together, like a natural disaster might, we see people digging in to whatever position they held before. I'm not going to air my opinions here, except to say this: what happened to the word "and"? (See my post on "The Power of the Ampersand".) What if both gun control AND mental health strategies are part of the answer? And I say "part" because the problem is more complex than these two issues, as important as they are.
This has been a week where I have to remind myself to focus on the good, the true, and the beautiful.
And yet the truth is that we live in a broken culture in a broken world. Sometimes that brokenness raises its ugly head more than other times, and we cannot simply look the other way.
But the beautiful does not disappear when the ugly reappears. And I have the privilege of taking in some unspeakable beauty in the weeks ahead.
How can the two coexist? In the same way they coexist inside each one of us. We are each broken, and we are each beautiful.