Has anyone seen Grace lately? No, she, or him/it, doesn’t have a last name. Grace refers to the act of extending kindness, understanding and forgiveness to someone, even when they don’t deserve it.

Grace has no particular or singular relationship to gender, race, religion, ideology or ethnicity. However, Grace probably possesses all of these identities, or at least is able to be engaged with each, if tapped into.

In any event, I haven’t seen much of Grace of late, actually for quite a while I’m sorry to say. Instead we seem to have an abundance of rudeness, a lack of consideration and outright ignorance. In fact, some actually go out of their way to confront each other as we go about our daily lives acknowledging traffic signs, speed limits, pedestrian walkways, entering or exiting a public space, pleasantly greeting others, e.g. “Happy New Year,” and so on. I think you get my point.

Needless and redundant to say, we are living in a complex and confusing world these days, facing opposition in almost any or all aspects of our life. Agreement seems to be among the absentees. I would like to blame all of this on COVID, but, alas, that’s been gone for a while, except for some persistent remnants.

No, the answer is not that easy, and to address the elephant in the room, no, Trump cannot take the blame for this sociological condition, even considering the obvious relationship in the lack of Grace. This inscrutable societal malady of divisional status has been brewing for quite a long time and has finally reached an obvious boiling point.

My personal opinion is that as a country we have been too busy for over five decades caving into lobbyists and special interest groups demands, losing the long term vision for building a strong cohesive foundation. This is why we are so fractured in politics, ideologies, gun laws, local decisions on housing, homeless, building heights, Generation Z vs. Generation X vs. Generation Y, and the list goes on. In the process, we’re forgetting how our country was built, with sound rules of law, freedom of speech and live and let live.

In essence we’ve ignored the art of civility, something that is more than evident right here in Portland. If we continue to divide ourselves into small tribal units we will no longer be a United States, but an assembly of different beliefs and values.

Let us avoid that continuing and begin to appreciate each other and our plight in life. After all, we all need water, food and protection.  Let us begin by being gracious to one another, respect each other’s choices and cultural background.