Just the other day I had the opportunity to experience a beautiful rendition of Handel’s “Messiah”. When I think about the genius required to compose such a piece of art, I am awestruck. And to do it with a quill pen by candlelight is simply mind blowing to my 21st century thinking. Yet, it is only ink on paper, the work of one man’s hand, until it comes to full flower with the concerted effort of a choir and orchestra.

And then it hits me! Here is an otherwise disparate collection of human beings brought together with a common purpose. Each person unique in their craft and talent with virtually all elements of society represented: men, women, some older, some younger, all races and ethnicities too.

The oboe section sounds nothing like the horns, while the female high sopranos are markedly different from the male baritones, and so on. Dare I even suggest that upon query there is a good chance all the political spectrums could be found on this same stage?

Bring it all together and you have the most euphonious experience our human nervous systems can discern. Our emotions are easily touched and swayed. (Mine are every time I hear it performed.)

By now you’re getting ahead of me and can see where this dreamy metaphor is headed...it’s people, working together, their differences attenuated as they approach and produce a common goal. In faith-based circles it’s called “The Body”. More secularly we refer to it as “E. Pluribus Unum” (out of many, one). In the interest of brevity let us just call it AMERICA.

Entrenched in opposing ideologies, we seem hellbent on finding that one “conductor” to lead our symphony our way, all the while failing to acknowledge, or worse, attack our neighbor. It’s the political ether we all live in at this the most fractious of times.

I’ll leave you with this thought. If a virus that requires human-to-human contact can start in a small locale half-a-world away and spread like wildfire, is it not possible that something as simple and universally desired as goodwill, starting in, say, Southern Wisconsin, can follow those same lines of transmission? Perhaps John Lennon said it best...Imagine.

Merry Christmas!