Had not seen our next door neighbors for a couple of weeks. She updated me about events in their lives while working in the yard. Her father who had been in hospice for almost a year died two weeks ago in Baltimore. That took her away for much of the time.
in this same time frame, after 27 years in her career as a government employee, she agreed to take a voluntary early retirement, She is in her early 50’s and would have preferred to stay in her job. But given the uncertainty and possible legal changes to benefits, she decided to leave.
A Poet’s Insight
Poet James Russell Lowell wrote about these life altering decisions in his poem, The Present Crisis. In its musical form as a hymn, it is titled, Once to Every Man and Nation. The opening stanza:
Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of Truth with Falsehood, for the good or evil side;
Some great cause, God’s new Messiah, offering each the bloom or blight,
Parts the goats upon the left hand, and the sheep upon the right,
And the choice goes by for ever ‘twixt that darkness and that light.
Lowell wrote the poem as a protest against the Mexican-American war in 1848.
Life’s Choices In Credit Union Land
Life happens for all. Sometimes the moral choices are chosen by us. Other times they are thrust upon one by events.
These turning points can shape the rest of our lives. My neighbor is now open to finding a new opportunity to help others, perhaps in non-profit work.
In credit union land, these pivotal events are unfolding daily. NCUA’s leaders are in unchartered territory. Will they step up or step back?
CEO’s are being tempted with buyouts, some sought and others dangled with incentives to transfer their legacy to another CEO’s command. Do I do the right thing, or take the money is an ever-present temptation. And the classic rationale, everybody is doing it makes taking the payoffs seem defensible.
As if the daily industry challenges were not sufficient, all Americans face a growing crisis in democratic governance at the national level.
It is easy to hunker down and just follow distant events on the news. That is not my problem. My attention must be on those things I directly control. One point of Lowell’s poem is that we all have a choice in these moments:
Hast thou chosen, O my people, on whose party thou shalt stand,
Ere the Doom from its worn sandals shakes the dust against our land?
Though the cause of Evil prosper, yet ‘t is Truth alone is strong,
And, albeit she wander outcast now, I see around her throng
Troops of beautiful, tall angels, to enshield her from all wrong.
Importantly, Lowell expresses hope that once engaged, we will make the right choice in these critical moments. Because “amid the market’s din” our “souls” will tell us what is required. Are we up to the multiple challenges confronting us in our personal, professional and public choices?
We see dimly in the Present what is small and what is great,
Slow of faith how weak an arm may turn the iron helm of fate,
But the soul is still oracular; amid the market’s din,
List the ominous stern whisper from the Delphic cave within,—
“They enslave their children’s children who make compromise with sin.”
Our Moment
In our credit union lives and our duty as citizens, we are not living in an era of business as usual. Now is the moment to decide.