The first time I heard the phrase “a moral imagination”, a deep sense of revulsion was triggered in me. Morality should not be fickle, arbitrary, relative, or moving. The offense was, however, provoked by misreading the grammar. What is malleable in this description is the imagination, and the adjective, “moral” is the fixed, solid modifier.
The banter in news cycles, with a half-life of minutes, is consumed with the immediate trajectory of some valued score relative to some past unit, whether a rise in incidence of COVID-19 infections, a fall in some economic barometer, or the short-sighted approval ratings of citizens (only some who vote). These fleetings vapors of noise ought not to frame nor ground our assessment when we turn around and direct our gaze towards tomorrow (or today to come).
Deploying creativity, synthesis, partnering, follow-through, humbly adding strength to another’s vision; these make for beauty from ashes, for breakaways from obstacles, and light in the fog of confusion. Stewarding a future exercised with integrity, compassion, respect, and honor, balancing private and public sustainability, anchors the enterprise on a moral footing.
Let’s not react to yesterday, but rather compose tomorrow, together.
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“If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same.”
Excerpted from poem “If” hotlink
By Rudyard Kipling
