Glory Be To 2025

Posted on | January 1, 2025 | 2 Comments

Mike Magee

More than once in the lead up to the launch of 2025 I have heard friends and colleagues express a range of sentiments that circled around the general notion that “This is too much to take.”

But throughout history, and into the current period, there are more than a few examples of human courage and resilience, and even a hopefulness that defies logic and reason.

One can hope, for example, that the long war between the Ukraine and Russia will be drawn to an end in 2025. President Zelensky’s address to the Parliament of the European Union in 2022 from a war bunker, did not mince words.

“I don’t read from paper, the paper phase is over, we’re dealing with lives. Without you, Ukraine will be alone. We’ve proven our strength. We’re the same as you. Prove that you’ll not let us go. Then life will win over death. This is the price of freedom. We are fighting just for our land. And for our freedom, despite the fact that all of the cities of our country are now blocked…We are fighting for our rights, for our freedom, for our lives and now we are fighting for our survival, Every square today, no matter what it’s called, is going to be called Freedom Square, in every city of our country. No one is going to break us. We are strong. We are Ukrainians.”

In those words, Ukraine’s president was mirroring the emotions of other leaders facing an impossible foe in uncertain times. Poets, politicians, and religious leaders have tread this path before. Rome’s 1^st century CE intellectual, Seneca, stated with confidence that “Injustice never rules forever.” Was he really sure of that?

In his Inaugural Address on January 20, 1961, President John F. Kennedy, expanded on this theme. “Now the trumpet summons us again – not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need; not as a call to battle, though embattled we are; but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, ‘rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation’, a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease and war itself.”

St. Augustine understood well the interlocking nature of human justice when he wrote, “Charity is no substitute for justice withheld.” And the Talmud cautions that timing is of the essence with this passage, “Three things are good in little measure and evil in large: yeast, salt and hesitation.”

As Shakespeare reminded, one person, large or small, can make a difference. “How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world,” he wrote. Goodness in the human world requires as much light as possible from every corner of society. Reality is real, as the Irish repeated often enough till the words “All sins cast long shadows” became a proverb.

Back in 2022, Zelensky closed his remarks to the European Parliament with this appeal, “Do prove that you will not let us go. Do prove that you indeed are Europeans. And then life will win over death and light will win over darkness. Glory be to Ukraine.”

But at the end of the day, it comes down to this, do you believe in the fundamental goodness of human nature? Walt Whitman did. He wrote, “I am as bad as the worst, but, thank God, I am as good as the best.”

Comments

2 Responses to “Glory Be To 2025”

Arthur Ulene
January 1st, 2025 @ 1:46 pm

Priscilla and I wish you and Trish the best year ever in 2025. Thanks for sharing your knowledge, wisdom, time and remarkable writing skills with all of us……ART
Mike Magee
January 1st, 2025 @ 4:53 pm

Happy New Year to you and Priscilla. Blessings to the whole family! Mike