My deep fear: that things WILL go *back* to how they were.
With the current state of being: the physical distancing, the masks, the hand-washing, the sharing what I have with those who don't have, the constant checking in on others, the need to update on how we're holding up...i can adjust and adapt and survive (&even thrive) during all of this.
The pieces of joy that I experience in this include seeing people slow down; seeing people walking through my neighborhood; seeing even more people on bikes; walking through town and not hearing a constant thrum of cars on the roads, hearing about the things (old&new) people are doing to keep themselves occupied; the times of deep reflection we are all having to to; the way communities are devising new ways of being "community".
All of the things we HAVE TO do (or should be doing), all of the coping mechanisms that are coming into play... I can deal with all of that because I can DO something.
But so many things were broken or barely limping along before all of this.
The fear creeps in when I contemplate the time after this. The what ifs...What if people just go back to rushing around, being disconnected, not caring for others, for the Earth? What if people forget lessons learned, experiences shared, emotions experienced during this time? What if the trauma we all are experiencing gets brushed under the rug and ignored or disregarded? What if the glimmer of the new way of Be-ing that is at the brink of being birthed gets crushed in the rush "back" to "normal"?
My fears as well. And more:
ReplyDeleteWhat if students are still burdened with student loans?
What if healthcare is still the employment-attached, for profit, mish-mash it is now?
What if People of Color, LGBTQ, Non-Neurotypical, Women, Disabled, are still mistreated and left out of societal rights?
What if greed and unregulated capitalism remain the way we live?
What if religious fanatics still harm the vulnerable, the "different?"
What if service workers are still underpaid and overworked?
What if the wealthy keep screwing the rest of us?
What if hate keeps winning?
WHAT IF WE STILL DO NOTHING ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING?
These fears and yours keep a lot of us up at night.