Regaining balance

“I am not a hero. I stand at the end of the long, long line of good people”

It has taken me a bit of space in time to restore balance to my thoughts from Wednesday. I began to think about Miep who helped to hide and sustain the Franks. She passed away on Monday at the age of 100. The above quote is from her. Excursions into sociology unearth some nasty injustices and I am very easily overwhelmed with all the subtexts I hear with the sociological lens. And yet to be overwhelmed is to be defeated in a strange way. Caring too much can actually be irresponsible. Perhaps it is the way we carry our concern that defines this. It turns out that the world is full of ordinary finite people. The task is not to save the world, that is only given to those of infinite nature. Looking at the story of Miep, and Anne, (and how many others?) I see now that task given to finite people is to be present in life, living as best as one knows. The formation of momentary heroic acts takes years of practice living with courage, justice, mercy—virtue—in daily life. In the end I must realize that Jesus lived a good 30 years before his campaign. For now my task is the daily practice of “insignificant greatness” which may or may not be practice for a time in the future when I am asked to join the long line of good people.