I like pomp! Throw in some circumstance and I am a happy fellow. I’m sure it’s a leftover from my early days as an altar boy, in a parish that pulled out all the stops almost every Sunday. It was part of the French-Canadian tradition carried to extremes: lots of candles, lace, and bejeweled vestments, and incense rising to the rooftop. Today, we would call it “high church.”
We saw pomp and circumstance the last weekend in August when America laid to rest one of its great warriors and statesman. We experienced quiet but uplifting ceremonies when he lay in the rotunda of his home-state capital. We experienced the military reception of the hero-senator when his casket arrived in D.C. We saw John McCain become only the 31st person to lie in state in the rotunda of the nation’s capital, on the same catafalque that held Abraham Lincoln. The funeral service in the National Cathedral featured talks by two former presidents. Then, there was the burial at the Naval Academy. Dignity overshadowed the pomp.
We don’t have an overabundance of dignity in our political world anymore. John McCain, however, brought together people of different political parties to speak with each other. He brought together people of different religions to pray together. He brought together people with strongly divergent philosophies and convictions, and they walked together. There was dignity in the prayers, the songs and hymns, and the homilies. There was dignity in the stories and the humor. It was as if the nation needed a respite from the lack of civility in the last few years and the lack of dignity that is palpable.
President Obama quoted from Hemmingway, McCain’s favorites: “Today is only one day in all the days that will ever be. But what will happen in all the other days that ever come can depend on what you do today.”[i] No matter our disagreement or agreement with McCain’s policies, his methods, or his voting record, he made every day count. He pursued truth and spoke truth to power. His was a life which knew heroism, which knew service to country, which believed in the founding documents and which was determined to make every day count. The nation stopped for a few days and expressed its affection for a life well lived. And, it did it with dignity.
The talking heads gave their interpretation of the events. For some, it was a needed dose of how life once was. For others, it was too much for someone willing to compromise with, or even befriend someone from across the aisle. It was both really. Meghan McCain’s eulogy included “The America of John McCain has no need to be made great again because America was always great.[ii] More than one commentator noted that that was true for those in the cathedral. When the cameras panned the congregation it showed mostly older and mostly white well-to-do people. They looked like the stereotypical power elites of D.C., and they were. The jab was directed at the absent President Trump, who was not invited. Some noted that the gathering didn’t represent Trump’s strong base of supporters anyway. They are not part of the power elite class and resent the actions of that cast of citizens. The tweeting quickly followed.
My experience was, perhaps naively, that those elected to office, those to whom we gave the reins of power, those we entrusted to work for the good of the country, did it with fervor, did it with conviction, debated the issues well, took a vote, and then went out for a drink with each other. In the end, they were on the same team. The ideology was in support of the country, its constitution, and its traditions, not the party.
This rupture in our approach to governing slits the country, and we know from experience that “a house divided against itself, cannot stand.”[iii] Neither can a house lacking in dignity and civility.
Maybe my propensity for pomp and circumstance drives my appreciation for the dignity John McCain brought back to America, even if only for one weekend. I suspect, however, that the visuals of that long weekend will remain with us for a long time and that we will demand more civility and dignity from our leaders, at all levels of government. We have seen what goodness and dignity look like. We need more of it.
