March 27,2020
Today’s observation – I have
discovered where the intrepid Indiana families go for social distancing – they
go to their nearest state park campground.
For my overnight accommodation, I sequestered myself and my pup at a
park south of Indianapolis on a wooded ridge, at a corner site surrounded by
RVs parked at tangential angles from me and a good fifty yards away. I pulled out my hammock and strapped it
between two big trees. Some gave me nervous looks as I took a walk around the campground
to stretch my legs, but they were easily disarmed with a smile. We are in this
together. Kids were riding their bikes
and playing corn hole. Family dogs were
tethered while parents grilled hamburgers and drank beer in the warm slanted
light. It was an outback suburbia. I climbed
into the hammock with my back to the busy scene and took in the slope of leafless
trees beyond me. If not for a forecast
of thunderstorms later in the night, I would have slept there, but by 9:00, I decided
to stretch out in the backseat of my Escape capsule and nodded off to sleep
early. Spring may be much slower to emerge
in wildflowers and buds here in the upper Midwest, still the air temperature
was kind and warm enough for gnats. I
was very grateful to shelter with the gentle folk in that Ohio River watershed
world.
Today’s image – Newscasters and
government officials are calling the pandemic an unprecedented disruption, and
sure – I can see their point. Beyond that,
there is a truth that keeps resurfacing: I see it as a powerful recalibrating
agent. I am imagining the striving
America – full of bustle and bills, hitting a wall of resignation with the
mandated cessation from regular routines, schedules, appointments, duties,
expectations and what is agreed upon as a normal, albeit frenetic, rhythm.
Modern bustle stripped down to essentials – a jitterbug boogey reduced to a waltz. There are indeed many sheltering in place and
not dancing at all because they have no shelter or safe harbor. They are a big part of this story. I am thinking about the fortunate ones who are
sheltered with family and caring folks, or at least in safe places alone with a
faithful pet as champion or generous neighbors. As I read the accounts of how
others spend their days, there is another pace taking hold as well as some new
ways of being together, seldom experienced previously without being drunk,
stoned or ill. Forced to slow down and
pay attention is BIG MEDICINE for this place, even if It is the best way to help
our doctors, nurses, first responders and other caregivers do their jobs as
they come to our rescue. Who could have guessed disruption would deliver salvation
like this?
Today’s idea – Sometimes it is best
to step outside the frantic glut of facts and do something very inattentive to
the emergency at hand. Sitting by a
river on a balmy afternoon or listening to an audiobook or reading to a child, finding
new music, watching again a favorite old movie or binge watching a new series
recommended on a FB post. Distraction has its own important work to do. The crisis looms ready to reengage us at a
moment’s notice. We are learning the
opposite of calculated rescue is dalliance, and that is equally important to
the mission of recovery.
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