If some days you feel like the world is spiraling out of control, perhaps it’s because it really is.
This pandemic has been exhausting. Not only because we are stuck inside, away from friends and loved ones, away from our jobs, and away from the everyday activities we once took for granted. It’s not only because we fear becoming sick, or we worry about our livelihoods and financial future. It is often because this pandemic has brought out the worst in our fellow humans.
Some of us try. I know I do and I have experienced some outpouring of great kindness during this time. But it’s not the norm.
I wear my mask diligently, like a coat of armor, every time I open the door and set foot outside. The generous donations of some very kind people have allowed me to provide meals for our front line healthcare workers. I put a teddy bear in the window, to participate in the neighborhood game of “Bear watch” for the local children. I ran 2.24 miles to honor Ahmaud Arbury, who was chased down and murdered in a racist attack while exercising. But the atrocities just keep coming.
I react with horror as we are asked to text FLOYD to help fight for justice for another black man brutally murdered by the police. I am ashamed, as I watch Amy Cooper call the police to report being harassed by an “African American man who was threatening her”( a Harvard grad and avid bird watcher) who politely asked her to leash her dog in Central Park. I feel defeated looking at photos of people crammed into bars and beaches and swimming pools putting their immediate gratification ahead of reality, knowing that although they think they are invincible, they are not. I feel angry seeing people walking down the street with their masks around their necks like a scarf, instead of on their faces protecting themselves and others in the process. I am enraged at the armed protesters, demanding their rights to go and do whatever they want, without any regard to the ramifications it can have on others. I shake my head when I read of the death toll at a church that broke protocol to hold services against the guidance of experts. I can’t even begin to address the tightness in my chest as our President tweets away, taunting and threatening others like a schoolyard bully and the loathing I feel for anyone putting politics and party ahead of right and wrong. It’s maddening, depressing, and downright exhausting to live in this world right now.
We truly have hit an all-time low in this country, and I fear we are still sinking. When we go high, they seem to just go lower. Where this tragedy could have brought people together, it appears to be creating a greater divide. We are a nation of humans, but we have ceased to be a society of souls.
Indigo jones 