How noble in reason, how infinite in faculties

On refocusing our humanity

Happy December, friends! How are you all doing? What is December like for you? Celebratory? Cozy? Traumatic? Depressing? All of the above?

For me it is a jumble of all of those things, especially as I’m getting older and have, now, fifty (!) Decembers to look back on, with all their various memories. Hopes, disappointments, times of deep depression, times of joy and delight, gifts given and received, gifts hoped for and not received — from people and from the universe.

December is also, particularly every four years, a time of political processing and transitioning. Many of us had high hopes and fears, and were working hard for an outcome that may or may not have come to be. I know this year’s election season felt particularly fraught. I watched the news (after a long break when the news cycle in January 2021 literally gave me shingles) and felt like not just my nation’s future, but the future of humanity was hanging in the balance. And it was. I’m not going to minimize the importance of electing good officials who will be forming policies that outlast them and their administration. Politics matters. And, in a sense, yes, everything is political.

But I’ve also been thinking a lot about how politics gives us a skewed idea of our progress as a species. With such a sharp focus on who will hold political office, with parties pitted against each other, we tend to get our news about science, medicine, religion, philosophy, and even art, music, and literature, through a political lens. But those things are their own reflection of humanity and our progress, apart from their relevance to politics. We, humans, continue to make great strides in our understanding of physics, biology, astronomy, math. We continue to find cures for diseases, and treatments that let us live with less pain. We continue to solve problems that baffled us decades ago. We continue to process our experiences through all different kinds of art forms. We continue to sing, and dance, and create community and liturgy and rituals that bind us together.

I’m reminded of this exchange between Captain Picard and Q from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Q is a mysterious, powerful alien who has put humanity on trial via the crew of the Enterprise. Q uses Picard’s volume of Shakespeare to try to condemn him (“all the world’s a stage” “life is a tale told by an idiot”). “How about a little Hamlet?” taunts Q.

“Oh, I know Hamlet,” replies Picard. “And what he might say with irony, I say with conviction: ‘What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god!’”

“Surely you don’t see your species like that, do you?” asks Q.

“I see us one day becoming like that,” Picard replies.

(As a theological aside, I think this interaction is fascinatingly reminiscent of Satan tempting Jesus in the wilderness, the two throwing Bible verses back and forth at each other.)

Politics makes me despair of humanity and our progress. But when I turn to literature, to art, to medicine and science, I feel more excited and hopeful. New medications were approved just this year for schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s. Botanists recorded 89 new species of plant and fungi last year. People continue to make art in ways both new and ancient. Cruelty exists in us, don’t get me wrong, but love and sacrifice and joy and creativity do, too. Maybe if we turned our minds more often to those things we would be more inspired to press on, individually and as a whole.

Are there things that have inspired you recently outside of the political realm? I’d love to hear about them.

With love and hope,
Jessica

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