It’s evening of a compare and contrast day that’s made me contemplative. I want to write it quickly to try capturing the contrast while it is still reverberating.
This morning we went to the No Kings rally in Redding. It had a different feel from the previous rallies. The line of protestors stretched about the same distance along the street as the previous rally but it was much deeper, from curb side back 10 or so yards. That density made it hard to move around. Official numbers will be hard to pin down. Almost all of the passing cars were honking in support. Many of the car passengers were holding anti-Trump signs. How do you count them?
The mood felt different. There were so many hand-made signs. These signs were uniquely diverse because the abuses and corruption of this administration are so unique and diverse. An early rally last year was dominated by anti-Musk/Doge signs. A later one by anti-Ice signs. But the diversity of today’s signs kept me aware of how much damage has accumulated within the fourteen months of Trump’s second term. The signs reflect how more and more, we see Trump for who he is (needing his name on everything), what he does. (“Imprisonment without due process is a concentration camp” said one sign.)
Then this afternoon we went to a memorial service for Glenn Zane, a man who had served many years on our Chrysalis board. He was a good man who advised me and helped anchor me during times of stress and was always focused on what would best serve Chrysalis. https://www.redding.com/obituaries/pyrk1428724
The memorial service was his children sharing stories that expressed the influence he had on them. What his family shared in story after story was his devotion to his family and his church, his integrity, and his high standards. Several of them quoted one of his favorite Bible verses: Micah 6:8. He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth Jehovah require of thee, but to do justly, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with thy God?
What made the memorial service so powerful for me is that the qualities they talked about, I too had experienced with him. This was the truth of Glenn Zane. The match between their stories and my experiences was a testimony to his deeply-lived integrity.
As Alysia and I drove home, the contrast between Trump and Glenn suddenly loomed in the phrase “to walk humbly with thy God.” What happens when you walk arrogantly, feeling that unconstrained power is your’s to do as you wish? How much good can accumulate in a life of walking humbly with thy God?
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