I had a different post ready for today, but when I read it last night, it wasn’t quite right and so I decided I would re-write it for next week.
Instead, I just want to say a few words following up from my post of yesterday about ‘decency first’.
Yes, I think it’s essential that we hold our elected officials and other leaders accountable for being decent human beings. That seems like the lowest bar we should insist on, even though it also seems oddly difficult for some candidates to meet at the moment.
But I also think we shouldn’t necessarily dismiss potential leaders for something they said or did or tweeted in the past. ‘Cancel Culture’ doesn’t serve anyone; we all need a pathway, and need to offer a pathway, to redemption.
Acknowledgement and apologies are important, and a clear effort to do better, but we do need to allow others the space to do better, just as we too, need that space. To me, growth in a person is just as important as decency. Visible growth usually means that there are public signs you have screwed up in the past. It is unfair of us to expect otherwise.
This simple statement that Maya Angelou (possibly one of the wisest people to have lived over the last century or 15?) wrote is one that I think sums up our struggle and our potential, and I try to offer it to others, even as I also try to live up to it myself:
"Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”
-Maya Angelou
This!! I have definitely "grown in grace" as I've aged. I think the more life we live--and mistakes we've made--the more we appreciate the times we've been given second (or third) chances. I'm currently working on this with my daughters. The Gen Z kids that have grown up in a world where most of their peers are very accepting of all different types of people and can't understand the older generations who aren't catching on as quickly but are trying to understand. #moregrace
Grown in grace..... ♥️