These two quotes can ease pain and give you purpose.

Sometimes I screw up. Often I do ok. Occasionally I do something very right. Yesterday (post-election day), by God's grace, I think I did good. I resisted mansplaining the election results to my progressive facebook friends in pain. 

(Please understand, this would not have been to downplay their pain. I wanted to help people understand how the other side could choose as it did. I live in a very blue-collar town.) 

Rest easy: I’m not going to attempt any such explaining here either.

But I do want to share a couple words from my religion that help me. If you’re of a different faith, I hope you have similar helps. I’m not trying to convert anybody here, believe me.

I. The first selection helps with perspective. It’s from the Hebrew scriptures, the book of Ecclesiastes (“the Teacher of the Gathering”). It’s the book from which Pete Seeger’s song, “Turn, Turn, Turn” is taken.

Generations come and generations go,

    but the earth remains forever.

The sun rises and the sun sets,

    and hurries back to where it rises.

The wind blows to the south

    and turns to the north;

round and round it goes,

    ever returning on its course.

All streams flow into the sea,

    yet the sea is never full.

To the place the streams come from,

    there they return again.

All things are wearisome,

    more than one can say.

The eye never has enough of seeing,

    nor the ear its fill of hearing.

What has been will be again,

    what has been done will be done again;

    there is nothing new under the sun.

II. Mission

I’ve posted a lot about having a sense of mission. It’s one reason America is so adrift: What are we about? “Being entertained and having nice gadgets,” says Pessimist Me.

Lately the personal mission I’ve tried to keep in mind is “to bless other people, especially through words and music.” Maybe a bit vague. And I don’t remember it sometimes.

So here’s one that has come to mind recently and seems to stick in my consciousness better. I tried to enact it yesterday on facebook by posting some music and well-wishes to all. Here it is: 

“Be an agent of salt and light.”

Not sure if "agent of salt" is very stylistically correct, from an English standpoint, but . . .

Jesus of Nazareth said this:

“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.

You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house.

Let your light so shine before others, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”

Have any wisdom or words that are of help to you? I’d welcome a comment.