In the wilderness

I'm told every spring of my ancestors wandering across the barren Sinai desert for 40 years on their way to the promised land. The story talks about those peoples' missteps, incurring the wrath of their stuttering leader when they got impatient and started worshiping a golden calf instead of the Guy in the Sky. The people grew agitated in their hunger and thirst, their loss of place. They were people after all, and living in such austere conditions after the fleshpots of Egypt (what's a fleshpot?) must have had a despondent post-apocalyptic feel to it.

Of course, political metaphors can be drawn from this story. Much has been said of the GOP's newfound residence in the wilderness, and of a new generation of Democrats strolling bravely into their own just future. It wasn't quite 40 years ago that the story was reversed, of course, but let's just talk about now. I like that story better.

It is also true that those in the wilderness and those in the promised land aren't a different people; they are Israelites or they are Americans who suffer different fates depending on their spots in history. Sometimes you're just born at the wrong time.

It is also true in both cases that fate isn't the only factor in play. The Israelites could have resisted temptation to their basest instincts, as could those elements of the Right who today insist that their way is the only way.

Even today, between overtures of good will towards the new administration, the new wanderers whisper about Marxism, even National Socialism. (At least we waited until the Iraq war to label Bush a Fascist and a Nazi, though neither is the case) Such language ensures that no progress to their cause will be made.

The modern GOP and the ancient Israelites had a choice to align themselves with their people or their faction, and in both cases they chose the latter.

Moses isn't allowed to enter the green pastures of Canaan, and all those who had known the land of their servitude had to die so that a new generation that had known only freedom would be grateful to their Creator for the abundant land that stretched before them; a promise for all time.

At the end of the Exodus story, Moses is up on a mountain, looking over the land of his people. He is forbidden to tread on that territory like everyone else who had known Egypt, but God let him have a look before giving him the gentle kiss of death and prophet status for all time. After so much anger, conflict and suffering, Moses had to go before progress could be made.

There are lessons for all of use here in America to take from that story. At some point we are all in the wilderness, at some point we have a choice to pursue our own interests or to pursue the greater good. I for one hope that this wilderness-promised land cycle can be broken and that we can work together to make this land as great as its promise. It's not us-vs-them. We're people who must choose our better nature despite circumstances, good or bad.