Reset?

Friends,

I continue to write amidst what I describe as my “hazy/crazy” attempt to make some some semblance of meaning from all that has so suddenly engulfed us all with the COVID-19 virus. An awareness of my dreams has dramatically increased, and I have been waking up needing to figure out what was a dream and what is real. Sometimes I feel there is not much difference. But reality is what we are all dealing with day by day without the presumed props of social contact, routines of shopping and commuting to work, and realizing how much we are actually “pack animals” that prefer to move in sync with our families and tribal cohorts.

Much of our efforts at meaning making revolves around discovering what really matters in our lives. Cathy and I have found, for example, the treasure of sharing intimate, close up Zoom time with our grandchildren for half hour at a time as we encourage them in art projects, reading and writing assignments, and just checking in with them a couple of times a week. And then there are those unhurried parts of our sequestered lives when we can just pause and take it all in - the “all” now both diminished and yet expanded by spacial limitations.

Like you I am finding some parts more challenging that expected. Cathy and I have to really pay attention, for example, with each others needs so we don’t annoy each other - we are not used to living so close together after all! And the uncertainty and personal threat of getting the disease has become more real for me this week. I find it especially difficult to realize that the accustomed ways of being protected from harm in my privileged world - availability of extensive medical care, money in my wallet and credit card,  and relative island seclusion (although we have over 40 cases here already on Whidbey) prove to be a very thin line of defense. Although presumably safer than many others, I am well aware I am very much apart of an interconnected and interdependent world where all of us are subject to the virus one way or another.

Perhaps like you I read voraciously about the virus. I want to understand as best I can the “force” that is upon us. The bottom line is that none of the pundits or medical consultants - and certainly not the federal government! - can offer much clarity. So we stitch together what information we can. The plain truth, however, is that we are ALL in this together. I suppose that is both a consolation and an enormous concern.

Last night I listened to my CD by the Blind Boys of Alabama, an African-American quintet with fluent harmonies of music from the Gospel tradition. One of the songs that I played a couple of times was their rendition of “When You Walk Through a Storm.” Given the context of these blind guys singing music from both their personal lives and  the grief and joy of their Gospel tradition, and the current crisis, the song seemed to speak to me.

When you walk through a storm
Hold your head up high
And don't be afraid of the dark
At the end of a storm
There's a golden sky
And the sweet silver song of a lark
Walk on through the wind
Walk on through the rain
Though your dreams be tossed and blown
Walk on, walk on
With hope in your heart
And you'll never walk alone
You'll never walk alone
Walk on, walk on
With hope in your heart
And you'll never walk alone
You'll never walk alone

Two other pieces of music were an uplift for me this week as they are both representative of our separations and the unity found in powerful music:  Beethoven’s 9th Symphony and Finlandia.

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=cantus+finlandia

https://slippedisc.com/2020/03/believe-it-orchestra-plays-beethoven-9th-from-their-homes/

I would love to hear what music, poetry and what else gives you solace in these sometimes lonely days. I can’t promise to pass them on, but I would like to hear from you.

On a more encouraging ending to my SEP this evening, I appreciated the following concluding paragraph from a long article from the current Atlantic magazine by Ed Yong with an assessment of possible positive outcomes from this turbulent shakeup to our American enterprise. I think of it as a hopeful reset to our values and future.
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"One could envisage a future in which America learns an important lesson. A communal spirit, ironically born through social distancing, causes people to turn outward, to neighbors both foreign and domestic. The election of November 2020 becomes a repudiation of “America first” politics. The nation pivots, as it did after World War II, from isolationism to international cooperation. Buoyed by steady investments and an influx of the brightest minds, the health-care workforce surges. Gen C kids write school essays about growing up to be epidemiologists. Public health becomes the centerpiece of foreign policy. The U.S. leads a new global partnership focused on solving challenges like pandemics and climate change." (To read the full article entitled “How the Pandemic will end” go to https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/03/how-will-coronavirus-end/608719/)

Go well, dear friends, and peace to you,

Tom