Two Holidays — MLK And trump

I’ve not written much of late for this “With a Cane” blog, but today is the national holiday for Martin Luther King – truly a “holy day” for our national civic religion. And it is, ironically, also the day of Trump’s inauguration — anything but a “holy day” even though in the past presidential inaugurations have occasionally risen to that status in our civic religion.
As will soon be evident, my source for this reflection is (not surprisingly) William Lynch’s soon to be published (by Georgetown University Press) Book of Admiration. It is a work he left uncompleted when he died in 1987 and which I have edited for publication later this year by Georgetown where it will be accompanied by two of Lynch’s earlier published essays on analogous themes about admiration and imagination, contempt and the death of imagination.
Both the national holiday and this year’s inauguration have already been the subject of much commentary. See, as one very good example, Nicholas Kristoff’s recent essay: “The World Is a Mess, and It’s Still the Best Time to Be Alive” (NYT 1/18/25). As its title suggests, it argues the need for balance in our thinking. There is much cause for contempt, but also much cause for admiration about the state of our world.
Today’s national holiday celebrates all the good envisioned and achieved by the ongoing movement for justice and peace celebrated by what we in Denver call the “Marade” – a public parade from the MLK statue in Denver’s City Park to the State Capitol. It is an expression of deep admiration both by the marchers and for those following the parade on live TV and on the day’s news.
Today’s inauguration events will be an expression of admiration for Trump’s many fans, but simultaneously an expression of contempt for those (like myself) who see the man and his movement as a bunch of gangsters and robber barons grabbing way too much power in political, economic, and cultural affairs.
While recognizing Kristof’s call for balance, I’ll be showing my deep contempt by not tuning in. Much better stuff to watch on Netflix and then there’s all the hoopla around the coming national championship game between Notre Dame and Ohio State . (The Irish sure to win. What’s a “buckeye” anyway?)

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It’s clear to all but those (too many) who’ve got their heads in the sand that we’re a deeply polarized and fragmented culture. Not just one big polarization, but many forms of polarization on so many different matters which we tend to understand as just one big polarization so that we can make sense of the mess.
You’ve probably heard the truism that God foresaw the mess but went ahead anyhow. She does things like that because She’s a very good cleaner-upper. And mud was and remains, the Good Book says, the stuff she chose to work with.

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At any rate, back to admiration and contempt and our two celebrations.
Since we’re supposed to love our neighbors and all that, it’s easy to think that contempt is wrong (even when our thinking is filled with it!). Yet it’s necessary to have contempt for much that’s going on in God’s good world. I’ve already expressed my contempt for Trump Etc. I do on occasion pray for him/them/it. I like to believe that the Kingdom always comes though we only get brief glimpses which occasionally shine through the darkness.
Said in the language of classical philosophy, the Good and the True and the Beautiful are “transcendentals” which pervade all being/existence. Amen and Alleluia. But truth also demands contempt for the arms manufacturers, the war profiteers, the human traffickers, the robber barons and the like. Justice may arise from peacemaking, but we need to fight like hell against their ilk.

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What’s crucial is that contempt must not be allowed to dominate our sensibilities – our media, our art, our language, our feelings. Though it often does. And the only remedy for that disease is admiration – the practice of admiration, the habit/virtue of admiration, at every level of life (family and work, conversation and competition, prayer and poetry).

I’d urge what the Jesuit’s call a “daily examen” – perhaps at the end of each day, or several times a day – where we pause to examine where our spirits have been moved mostly by contempt and more by admiration.
The mantra from the 60’s to “tune in, turn on, drop out” made some sense if we tried to tune in to the right stuff, the truly admirable. Too often, back then and still, we tuned way too much to the unholy spirit of contempt and dropped out of the challenge of realistic admiration.
Remember the devil and the spirit of the world in John’s Gospel and the prevalence of seven deadly sins? (I’ll give you a 10 second pause here to try to remember all 7, and the moral and theological virtues as well!) As it always has been and will be, but for the grace of God.

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‘Nuff. Celebrate MLK’s vision today, but not the inauguration. At least faintly trust the larger hope. Or, better, fully trust the real hopes, the everyday admirable, the saints among us. Enjoy a good drink today and some good reading instead of the TV nonsense.