73 - Upholding Dignity

My friends, as we enter the waning days of the year, November greets us not with calm but with a world still trembling. Across continents, people have risen in the “No Kings” protests. Voices are raised in unison against corruption, overreach, and the resurgence of authoritarian temptations. Nations struggle against one another with tariffs and barriers, each new regulation ricocheting through supply chains, tightening wallets, and stoking anxiety.

Tension has become a kind of global weather — and though we may stand far from the centers of unrest, we can feel its winds all the same. Prices rise. Resources shrink. People grow impatient, fearful, distracted, and at times overwhelmed by forces too large to grasp.

In such seasons, it is easy, far too easy, to turn inward in the wrong way: shrinking, hardening, becoming suspicious, protective, self-contained. But it is in precisely these moments that the Third Keystone speaks with greatest urgency:

“Uphold the rights and autonomy of others as you would your own”.

This is not merely a rule. It is a posture toward the world.
It is the insistence that dignity does not evaporate in times of crisis.
It is the declaration that moral clarity is not a luxury reserved for peaceful days.
It is the reminder that even now, especially now, our treatment of others reveals who we are.

For the world will always offer us reasons to forget this.
It will whisper, “Protect only yourself”.
It will tempt us to see neighbors as competitors, strangers as threats, and difference as danger.

But Paraclism teaches us that fear is no excuse for injustice.
Scarcity is no license to demean.
And hardship is no justification for abandoning the rights of others.

Instead, precisely when the world grows uncertain, we must grow more principled.

The chaos beyond our communities makes the work within our communities all the more essential. When global tensions rise, the bonds at home must strengthen. When nations clash, neighbors must cooperate. When world leaders fail to uphold human dignity, ordinary people must do so twice as fiercely.

We cannot repair the world by force of will alone. But we can repair the world by faithfully tending the soil beneath our feet.

And this is where the Third Keystone meets the First Keystone in quiet harmony:
Though we strive for autonomy, efficiency, and personal strength, such striving is never meant to overshadow the rights and autonomy of others. The Keystones temper one another — the First teaching us personal excellence, the Third teaching us universal respect. If we lean too heavily on one, we topple. In balance, we stand upright.

So in this tumultuous time, let us keep our vision steady:
Yes, the world is unbalanced.
Yes, the pressures of nations weigh heavily.
Yes, protests erupt and economies strain and none of us control the horizon.

But we control our conduct.

We control how we treat those around us.

We control whether our community becomes a refuge or another battlefield.

Let this be the time to focus and, quietly, firmly, collectively dedicate ourselves to dignity, fairness, and the sacred autonomy of every person.

The world may shake; our principles need not.