Let The Winds Blow

“Let the winds of life blow as they may-let it shake loose all that you thought was real.”  - Rev. Dr. David Alexander

It touched me in a deep and profound way.  I thought of all the beliefs I have had over my life that turned out not to be true.  I thought of how each of us percieves reality through our own particular lens.  And how easy it has been to stay in my own sense of what is real, what is true for me.  It is a valid perch from which to observe the world until a pandemic hits. 

We are now experiencing an event unlike any we have faced.  Everyone is impacted  - the reality is universal.  Still, each of us is affected in different ways, at varying degrees of intensity.  Even if you are one of the lucky ones to not be ill or know anyone who has gotten COVID-19, and you have a job you can do from home and you have a home to shelter in, the world around you changed.   

And, if you are ill, know someone who is, are quarantined, out-of-work, scrambling to make rent, or working in an essential job you are impacted on a much more severe level.  There is no escape, no alternate reality to live in.  This is it.  We make of it what we can, each on an individual or familial basis.  We try to make the best decisions we can for our safety, economic security, and the well being of our family. 

There has not been a consistent of dependable flow of information or resources from the people in power.  Even between levels of government federal, state and local there are differing directives and recommendations. New information comes out almost daily and still numbers climb.  

Our concept of who we are as a people has taken a pretty terrific beating in the last few years.  I remember hearing over and over in 2018 “this is not who we are.”  But as we used for-profit prisons to put children in cages, took away protections and regulations to safeguard our water and air, as we denied basic rights to immigrants-voters-women and demeaned the very idea of a free press.  This is who we are.

And now in the age of COVID, we see more cruelty, more disregard for science, for facts, for our very lives.  I know that this has been a gradual erosion of regard for our values, denial of facts, cutting the safety net and investment in our infastructure including water systems, education, health care, roads, bridges, mental health and criminal justice reform. 

It has all just crashed in a big splat at once.  So I guess we let the winds blow and shake loose all we thought was real.  Then, perhaps we can build anew.  We can start to change our direction by acknowledging the reality of where we are.  We can make a moral journey and fashion a country that lives up to those values we claimed to live by.