In 1929 as the havoc of the Great Depression was just beginning, a small marketing group at Coca-Cola met to figure out how to promote their product at such a difficult time.
Eventually what they came up with was, “The Pause that Refreshes.”
That singular little phase revolutionized the marketing industry. It caught on like wild fire because it connected with people’s felt need for a break from economic anxiety and for some economic collapse that was shaking the foundations of the entire nation.
People needed to feel like there was hope, a light at the end of the dark tunnel they were in. They needed a break, a pause, from the gloom and doom they were hearing every day. The Pause That Refreshes was Coca Cola’s response to that need.
Many days I feel like I could use a pause that refreshes from the most disgusting, disheartening, and morally callous politician in my lifetime, and I suspect the entire history of the presidency.
When Joe Biden described the stakes in the 2020 presidential campaign between him and Donald Trump as a battle over the soul of America, he couldn’t have been more on target.
We listened to him then, but turned around and ignored his warning four years later by electing Trump again and now we confront on a daily basis what feels like an avalanche of toxic garbage being dumped on the whole nation by the Trump presidency.
The struggle I have had is how to keep up with what is happening without allowing it to poison my soul, to dull my own moral conscience and moral courage to the point where I stop being outraged by everything Trump says and does.
I needed a pause that refreshed my spirit. And then just at that moment I recalled a quote I had read years ago by 18th century Quaker named William Penn. I could only remember parts of it so I looked it up.
Penn was a British Quaker theologian who founded the colonial province that became the state of Pennsylvania. The quote I was searching for was this: “I expect to pass through life but once. If, therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again.”
Just reading his words lifted my spirits and so I sat for a time and meditated on his words. It was then that I realized I needed to do what I was doing more often, every day, in fact, and so that is what I started doing.
At first it was a pause from all things Trump where I shut him out of my thoughts and began reading books and articles for inspiration. At times I would write down thoughts that came to mind. But mostly I listened to music.
Music. Such a wonderful gift for the soul. I am awed by the brilliance of artists who can write musical scores and song lyrics that speak “from deep to deep”, as a clergy friend of mine used to put it.
The unexpected calming power of pianist George Winston’s Winter album…having my breath taken away by Pavarotti’s Nessun Dorma…hearing the voice of angels in the harmony of Sarah Bareillis and Rufus Wainwright in their duet, She Used To Be Mine…being rescued from despair by Secret Garden’s Hymn to Hope… being softly reminded by Wouter Kellerman’s Love Gets Old never to let that happen.
Such pauses in my day are for me a gift of God that Trump ‘s toxicity cannot penetrate. His ugliness doesn’t intrude on their beauty and inspiration. When I am in these moments it’s as if Donald Trump doesn’t exist.
I think we all need pauses from Trump, moments when our personal space has no place for him, when our time belongs to us and our souls are filled with hope and joy he cannot tarnish or take away, when we realize that the world is filled with people like William Penn who are showing kindness and doing good on behalf of others every day without fanfare or notice.
This is when I know in my soul that Trump’s evil will one day be gone and the pall he is casting over America will be no more.
It is, of course, easy to begin thinking Trump and Trumpism are all powerful and unstoppable, but when I take time to quiet my worries and anxieties I realize that they are neither.
I confess I sometimes wonder how we as a people can stand three more years of Trump dumping his toxic waste on the nation, but I believe tending to our own souls must be one way we secure the strength of mind and spirit to survive him.
The saints called this work mysticism. I call it experiencing the mystery of God, entering the world beyond reason and logic wherein we experience an unspoken assurance that God is good, love is God, and love always wins.
Those daily pauses keep me going, keep me in the fight against Trump for decency, for the moral order that has always sustained our country and will continue to.
Without practicing a pause from Trump on a daily basis I suspect his slime might completely suffocate me spiritually.
I cannot and will not let that happen. I hope you won’t either.
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