Finding Meaning Beyond Politics

Dear Seattle University Community, 

In these polarized times, every thought, action or word can be imbued with political significance. The danger posed by the politicization of everything is the all-consuming way it leads us to forget the many other dimensions of life that confer meaning and that provide us with the reservoirs of perspective and hope we need if we are to navigate through our damaged world and try to make it better. 

In her poem, Primary Wonder, Seattle poet Denise Levertov lamented how life’s worries – many of them important – prevented her from remembering our deepest human calling. “Days pass,” she says, “when I forget the mystery. Problems insoluble and problems offering their own ignored solutions jostle for my attention, they crowd its antechamber along with a host of diversions, my courtiers, wearing their colored clothes, cap and bells.” 

She urged us to take the time to remember the enduring mystery at the heart of all human existence – “the quiet mystery,” as she called it, “that there is anything, anything at all, let alone cosmos, joy, memory, everything, rather than void.” In a different poem, she encouraged us “to lie back under the tallest, oldest tree . . . to feel vibrate the enraptured waterfall . . . to breathe the spray.” 

As we anticipate the election tomorrow, many of us with a mix of anxiety and dread (and perhaps hope), I encourage you to take a moment to remember the vast domain of human endeavor and meaning outside of politics: the timeless beauty of the mountains and the waters all around us, the precious relationships with those we love and even the ephemeral interactions and moments of grace we experience more casually as we move through our daily lives . . . the persistent search for transcendence and meaning. Failing to do so is a recipe for depleting the sources of strength that we will need to continue working for a just and humane world, whatever the outcome of tomorrow’s election. 

This is not to diminish the significance of election outcomes. Civic engagement is vitally important, because policies implemented by our elected officials profoundly impact our lives, especially the lives of the most vulnerable. And yet we should always continue to search for ways to resist totalizing, inhumane political visions that leave room for “nothing outside the state.” Whether we view the results of tomorrow’s voting as a triumph or a tragedy, I hope that we will continue to care for one another and to save space for life’s “primary wonder.” 

Respectfully, 

Eduardo M. Peñalver
President

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