We are nearing the end of The Week Between, for many a relaxing period of sleeping in, eating wonderful leftovers, watching sports, and clearing our minds. The week goes by too swiftly. By this time next week a new year will be four days old, and we haven’t yet given much thought to new year resolutions.

But this year. We have thought plenty about this year that now comes to a merciful end — a year dominated by the daily misfeasance, lies and malfeasance of a man who plays at being president. Impossible to ignore, but we try. Despite our efforts, we can’t escape feeling anxious about our future and our inability or unwillingness to fix what’s broken.

A light is dawning, though. It is. I believe it. We should trust it and act on what it illuminates inside our better selves, that persistent urge. Few have expressed this more eloquently than the late Howard Thurman, Baptist preacher and founder of the first interracial interfaith congregation in the United States. He wrote:

“When the song of the angels is stilled,
when the star in the sky is gone,
when the kings and princes are home,
when the shepherds are back with their flocks,
the work of Christmas begins:
to find the lost,
to heal the broken,
to feed the hungry,
to release the prisoner,
to rebuild the nations,
to bring peace among the people,
to make music in the heart.”

Rev. Thurman is right. This is how we fix the broken. This is what we will do. Let’s get started.