Well, let me state the obvious first. There has been a palpable reaction to the pandemic at hand. At first, I thought it weird. But then I thought about it some more. I realized that we are reacting the way one would react when life throws us off-balance. The difference this time is that it rained on all of us. We are all getting our parties pooped on. This pandemic has shown us where we are most vulnerable, that is, primarily, in the face of uncertainty. I mean that literally, we are most vulnerable in the face of uncertainty.
I remember 9/11. But I remember it most through the eyes of the eighteen-year-old that I was at the time. I felt horrible that the twin towers had fallen and that the Pentagon had been hit. The feeling of security that I had always felt in this country, left me that day. The feeling was temporary but real nonetheless.
As I look back, I know that the consequences of that day were far-reaching and at the time, I did not know what they were. Regarding the Covid-19 pandemic, I’m afraid I cannot say the same. The world’s resolve has been cracked. In this time of uncertainty, we see what will unglue the fabric of society. And it’s not about a doomsday or an economic collapse. It’s that the world, if it looks closely enough should now be able to see, in its own panicked reflection, that what we don’t know terrifies us.
Even worse, it seems to me that we are incapable of dealing with it properly. Everything before us is uncertain, the whole future, starting with tomorrow is uncertain. But this is not a result of Covid-19. This has always been the truth. We exist today, to do what is necessary to make it to tomorrow. But we can now see that we, left to our own devices, do not know how to do that. If you don’t believe me, just walk down the toilet paper aisle and you’ll see the answer emerge clearly.
The answers that we are looking for do not reside in stimulus packages. But we do see glimpses of it whenever we see one person give up something precious to help someone else out. A sacrifice is needed. And maybe that’s what some people and even governments are trying to do. In the U.S in particular, never have we moved faster to spend 2 trillion dollars. It’s a sacrifice, but one that even the experts can’t figure out if it’s worth it. But at least we are doing something. I’m not against or for the stimulus package. I understand it mostly as a natural reaction to what we are going through, it is what people do. Problem pops up, throw money at it.
Even our religious leaders are scrambling to figure out the financial impact this will have. But these are not the right kind of sacrifices. You all know I’m a Christian, and that on occasion I say that I am out loud. Christian tradition teaches that a sacrifice was made, that as far as I can tell, does very little to protect us from the rain, but certainly prepares us for the destruction after the storm. And that means something. Because most people think they can handle the damage that emerges once the clouds dissipate. But increasingly, I feel that chaos will ensue. That chaos will be the reaction people have when the world is plunged, as one, into the unknowable.
I feel this is particularly true because we will sacrifice everything but what matters most. We will willingly sacrifice someone else or something else. But hardly will we reach the conclusion that we have to sacrifice ourselves. Christ was offered up as an innocent lamb to be slaughtered. By his father, and his father is God. And the one advice that tends to be overlooked that Christ gave was that we ought to pick up our own cross and move directly into the uncertain. We don’t get to sit back and bask in the wings of God, our protector, and see the world burn. Our grit will be tested too. This last paragraph or so I guess was meant for those that claim belief. I digress.
To the world at large, no one man has the answers that will lead us into the so-called good life. But I know we must look inwardly first before we ever look anywhere else. For those that either by government mandate, insistence or personal inclination have decided to stay far away from the world, take some time to self-evaluate. It’s what I’m trying to do.
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