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The Daily Attentional
Meditations for a Divided World
Vol. 1, Week 3: Dropping Our Illusions
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“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” — James Baldwin
One of the most damaging byproducts of our divided word is that we spend vastly more resources on criticism of others than awareness of ourselves.
In a 1962 essay for The New York Times Book Review, "As Much Truth As One Can Bear," writer and civil rights activist James Baldwin described the need for American writers to face the truth about America in order to "remake America into what we say we want it to be." Baldwin argued that we had been "both searching and avoiding" a full accounting of American society for many generations. “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”
The seventeenth-century Dutch Baroque painter Rembrandt created close to a hundred self-portraits in various mediums over the course of his life. Taken as a whole, the portraits depict the visage of a man evolving from presentation to acceptance. In his 1659 painting, "Self-Portrait with Beret and Turned-Up Collar," the artist presents his aging self without idealization. The face is lined, the gaze steady but unsparing. He does not retreat or avert his eyes from himself. There is no attempt to persuade, impress, or justify. What emerges instead is a sturdy sense of presence built with an insistence on truth.
This posture toward the world matters deeply for our relational lives. We identify injustice in other people and groups rather than confront how fear, resentment, or indifference shape our own participation. The social injury of others is perpetrated by countless acts of personal avoidance.
Repair begins when we gather the courage to face ourselves with openness and honesty. Look closely at Rembrandt's image of himself as an old man and you see something profound. Rembrandt has found compassion for his subject. The artist has discovered his own humanity, ephemeral and enduring.
When we find true compassion for the person in the mirror, we find true compassion for all.
- James Baldwin, "As Much Truth As One Can Bear," The New York Times Book Review, 1962
- Rembrandt, "Self-Portrait with Beret and Turned-Up Collar," 1659. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
