Seeking Optimism
A recent National Public Radio program reminded me that the Musical “Hair” opened on Broadway 50 years ago, declaring that it was the beginning of “the Age of Aquarius.”
“When the moon is in the seventh house
And Jupiter aligns with Mars
Then peace will guide the planets
And love will steer the stars.”
Those lyrics, from one of the play’s principal songs, “The Age of Aquarius,” or “Let the Sunshine In,” were creatures of their age. It was the 60s, and despite social upheaval, exuberant optimism was easy to find in popular culture.
“Hair” appeared the same year as “Hello, Dolly” and “Fiddler on the Roof,” and songs, like “Turn, Turn, Turn,” “Abraham, Martin and John,” “If I had a hammer,” “Blowin in the Wind,” and “We Shall Overcome” expressed the idealism of the era’s youth.
Bad News Travels Fast
It’s not easy to find such expressions of optimism in today’s culture. Today, bad news travels fast. We’ve become accustomed to see and hear extraordinarily bizarre and disheartening news on a daily basis.
“What’s happening to this world?” we may ask.
We may, of course, just be “catching up” with people in a lot of other parts of the globe who experience lawlessness, dysfunction and fear on a daily basis.
But I remind myself often that believers must be optimists, that the search for God presupposes the desire to be God-like and the God of traditional religions, including Judaism and Christianity, is far from pessimistic. The Hebrew and Christian Bibles are full of reasons to be optimistic.
First, there’s the famous Psalm 23 from the Hebrew Bible. I find myself returning to this beautiful psalm, which begins, “The Lord is My Shepherd,” time and again when I feel especially pessimistic.
Then there’s the book of Joshua, also in the Hebrew Bible. The writer puts these words in God’s mouth: “…Be strong and of good courage; be not frightened, neither by dismayed; for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
The Christian Bible includes John’s gospel which is replete with one of Jesus’ favorite admonitions: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you… Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”
As if we needed a reminder, other parts of the Bible remind us that life is full of ups and downs, that we should be tuned into the “seasons” of our lives and meet them on an even keel. “For everything there is a season,” says the Book of Ecclesiastes, “and a time for every matter under the sun.”
The bottom line is, we were designed for joy, not fear. And we become aware of that when we have a sense of God in our lives.
Human Invention to Make Us Feel Better?
Some people believe this is what Karl Marx was talking about when he called religion “the opium of the people.” Religion, many believe, is a human invention to make us feel better when things don’t go our way. They overlook the responsibility and obligations that accompany religion, some of which are reasons many people reject it.
No, we’re not talking about a starry-eyed, Pollyannaish sort of optimism here. Contrary to common wisdom, real religion is rooted in realism, based on what the Bible and tradition have revealed about God and about us. If we’re successful at it, the search for God leads us to the optimism of faith, where we will always be in “the Age of Aquarius.”
In an essay in “Living City,” a publication of the Focolare Movement, Dee Romualdo-Wilson compares the personal defects, trials and setbacks in life to weeds in a garden. We work to eradicate them, but they inevitably return.
However, “when we are aware of the presence of God and surrender to his limitless love, the weeds, thistles, those thorny, pesky dandelions, all the bad seeds and the unwanted crops die. In their place sprout love, joy, peace, gentleness … (and) faith….”
