April
10, 2020
Today’s
idea – Maybe we’ve needed this for a long time.
To be stopped so we could take a long moment and assess what is alive in
us and what is mere rote living, what is unnecessary and what really matters;
what we carry by empty habit. To know that busier doesn’t make us more worthy- a
good work ethic is not to be confused with constant motion. We’ve needed this to learn how to be together as family again, to
sit together in conversation, to listen to one another, to play and read together,
help solve problems even do homework together, cook together, sit around a
table again. And to say to each other, here are boundaries, this is okay and
that is not okay because we do that for the ones we love. We needed this to understand
that isolation can be hard on some people sheltering in place, the abuser with
the abused, those that must shelter alone,
those who need consistent home care for a chronic illness or condition, the
family receiving hospice care for someone in demise. Maybe this is what we needed
to see who the real leaders are, the ones who lead from the middle with their
sleeves rolled up, enlisting experienced, competent and tenacious teams of
advisers and managers who sometimes disagree; truthtellers and deliverers,
compassionate arbitrators who can balance risk with optics and takes action,
knowing how important the malleability of a decision must be as more
information pours in. A leader who knows how to focus on the process, keeping one
eye on the problem before him and another on the one ahead of that. She takes responsibility, earning respect for
protecting her constituents instead of her ego.
And maybe we needed this to remember what clean air feels and looks
like, how our lungs, sinuses, skin and eyes are revived by it. How when the smog dissipates, there are magnificent
peaks and mountain ranges that reemerge beyond cityscapes. That wildlife such as sea turtles can
reconstitute their beleaguered populations by arriving undisturbed to ancient
nesting sites. Maybe we needed this to
make time in the middle of the day for a Spring walk that re-calibrates our
humanity. To open up space to check on our parents or to help a besieged
funeral director. To turn cotton sheets into
protective masks. Maybe here is
breathing room for a renaissance within ourselves and our society. We who had begun to emulate robots and
computer programs. Such a revival would
be no small thing in this Anthropocene Epoch.
Today’s
observation – I took everyone’s temperature in the dorm today, a new directive
from the head of school. No fevers found
– temperatures ranged from 96.8° – 98.2°F.
The girls were relieved, just knowing too. I’ve been taking mine daily
for about two weeks. I understand that
relief. To abate unfounded stress is so good
for the mind. The mind is so powerfully important to our well being; we often
think ourselves in and out of good health.
And when we are stricken, and the mind is knocked off kilter by fever or
infection, it is then that we become our most vulnerable, falling prey to the
pathogen. In these moments, it takes resolve and blind faith, pouring into our
limbic brain, to signal the gut flora to dispatch antibodies and macrophages, that
could revive us. It’s built into our code. All that and sleep and the generous help of
caregivers if we are that lucky, and if it is not time for us to go. I am grateful that we are a house without
fever today. Less stress makes for more laughter.
Today’s
image – I read a piece in the Chicago Sun Times by an emergency room
doctor. He’s an African American working
on the South Side. A friend called for
his advice. He has tested positive for
Covid19, and he lives in a two-bedroom apartment with four other people, one of
them is his grandmother. How can he quarantine when there is no extra space?
What’s more, he must go to work, being one of the only two wage earners in the
family. The doctor was at a loss. He could advise medically but had no
experience for advice on family logistics, and he certainly didn’t feel qualified
to give his friend financial or economic advice. In a flood of emotion that swept him up out of
the distress about his friend’s situation, he knew that here was one more case
of the poor having to shoulder the brunt of the outbreak, having no good options
for mitigating the risk for infection of family members. In Chicago 70% of the corona virus deaths
have been within the African American demographic; and they comprise only 30%
of the city’s population. This truth lays
bare injustice not only in Chicago but in cities across the country and even
around the world. Poverty creates
tinderboxes for the spread of countless diseases. It is something we have known for a long
time. We have also known that economic
justice is an important piece of public health.
Illuminated by this epidemic, again we see the work that remains to be
done. In the end, the Chicago emergency
room doctor made a plea, calling us to action to practice greater empathy, a
call for intention and attention to those at the greatest risks. Empathy cultivates reciprocity. Here is our path to ascension.
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