During the spring of 2018, we lived in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington DC, on 5th Street, NE. Every day, as I walked to and from places, I got to see this beautiful sight: the dome of the nation's capitol building.
You can see the Capitol building from most places in DC--it's on a hill, and the other buildings in the immediate area are smaller. It stands out.
I remember one of the first times I glimpsed it in January 2018--maybe on the exact day that I took this photo--I felt comforted by how big it was, how stately and classical and sturdy it looked, how it gleamed in the sun, and could be seen from everywhere. It can withstand anything, I remember thinking. Even Trump.
All that spring, I came to love having the presence of the Capitol in my life--not just the glimpses of its shining white dome as I went about my daily business, and its beautiful grounds, where Bruce and I frequently went for walks. I also loved the knowledge that in its marble halls, the work of government was continuing--including resistance to the awful policies that were being made that spring.
And then just this week, as I sat with Bruce in our home in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, watching what we thought would be the ceremonial acceptance of the Electoral College's votes making Joe Biden and Kamala Harris our next president and vice president, I saw the Capitol--my Capitol--overrun by angry and violent mobs incited to insurrection by President Trump. They waved Trump and Confederate flags, broke windows and doors, beat up Capitol Hill police, and shouted angry and profane chants. They defaced the building. They almost reached the chamber where senators had been debating.
How can I describe the feelings that washed over me at that time? Horror, disgust, anger, fear. At one point, I had to leave the room: I just could not watch anymore.
January 6 was, of course, Epiphany, the day when Christians celebrate the visit of "wise men from the East" to the baby Jesus, as described in Matthew 2:1-12. I'd posted some pictures on Facebook to celebrate: one of the magi and a camel from my mom's nativity set (that I now have set up on our mantelpiece)
and one of 4-year-old Eli (in the back there) dressed up as one of the Three Kings from a preschool celebration of Three Kings Day. One of his teachers was from Mexico, where Epiphany is celebrated vigorously!
I like Epiphany--coming as it does after the busy and often overwhelming Christmas season when commercial voices and general noise and bustle threaten to overpower the radical message of Christmas: that despite jealous rulers, God--Love--has come down to earth in flesh, love embodied.
Epiphany and this past week have made me think about Incarnation and incarnation--the Christian concept, of course, but also just the idea of embodying ideas. How do people put flesh on their beliefs, and what does it look like when they embody those ideas?
The insurrection this week was certainly an embodiment of some ideas: of privilege, of enraged grievance, of the power of lies, desperation, tyranny, and racism. We can no longer ignore those ideas because there they were, embodied before us in chants for lynching, destruction of our capitol building, and murderous actions! It's enough to make me despair.
And yet. If I think back to our time in DC in 2018, I remember despairing about President Trump's nastiness. But I also remember realizing that DC isn't just about the president. He is not the only embodiment of our nation.
In visits that spring with people who worked for the U.S. Government, like Daniel, Aaron, Katie, Mary Ellen, Mary, and Larry, I heard about how the day-to-day work of civil servants in our capitol city embodied the strongest ideals of our country: democracy, freedom, community. They kept on working for our country despite the roadblocks thrown up by Trump and his allies, and despite Trump's inability to embody decency and democracy.
It's time for embodiments of hatred, division, privilege, and racism to go. We now see them for what they are. They have embodied their ideals, and we no longer want them anywhere near our Capitol or in our country. It's time for the incarnations of our country's highest ideals to be manifest in us.
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