As I entered this holiday season, I have been torn between frustration at other's lack of compassion and a desire to improve the circumstances of those less fortunate than myself. How does one reconcile the struggles of people facing hunger, poverty and lack of affordable health care with the indifference and persecution by those in power?
While watching a Tolkien drama yesterday with my family, I posed a question: "Whose greed was more evil (i.e., caused more human death and suffering): Ebenezer Scrooge, Smaug, or a certain well known, unnamed billionaire?" Unfortunately, the general consensus was that the real life human was worse. It is almost as though we have reentered a harsh new Dickensian era, where we wish the ghosts of Christmas would visit our leaders and oligarchs.
I had duck for Thanksgiving yesterday, the smaller cousin of goose. I did not find a bonnie, bright, little blue egg in the disjecta membra as I prepped the bird for roasting. Fortunately, my life is replete with privilege, and I do not have to worry about a roof over my head, food on my table or being able to pay for any medical bills I might incur. Unlike Peterson, I am not in need of reward money for recovered stolen gemstones. (I am going to assume that Holmes shared the reward money with the good commissionaire, or just gave it to him outright.)
The vision of Sidney Paget's line drawing of Sherlock Holmes standing in front of his fireplace, holding the blue carbuncle high, with James Ryder kneeling abjectly before him begging forgiveness has been flitting across my mind recently. It has competed with media images of Chicago neighbors blowing whistles, trying to warn and protect their neighbors. What price does the law demand when it ignores mercy, compassion and justice? How do we negotiate following the rule of law when the law and its enforcers seem to be inhumanely cruel? And is there a way to punch a Nazi while still abiding by a personal philosophy of nonviolence? Some months ago I mentioned to a fellow veteran, an immigrant, that we are going to discover which of our neighbors would turn Anne Frank in to the authorities.
Are we retained by the police to supply their deficiencies? Shall we commute felonies in order to save a soul? It is the season of forgiveness, and if I have learned anything from the year 2020 it is to extend to others even more grace than I would wish for myself. And so, to the best of my ability, I will follow Sherlock Holmes’s example of justice over law.
Happy holidays.
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