PANDEMIC DIARY
“THAT’S US” : AN END-OF-YEAR MESSAGE
December 24, 2021
Typically, the end of the year is deluged with ‘Ten Best Lists’. From Broadway to books, from song interpretations to technological innovations, attempts are made to ‘sum up’ the year’s events. Humans love to rate and rank. I say ‘attempts’ to sum up because these baptisms to most notable lists do not necessarily reflect what is occurring on the ground, as it were, where life happens. So few in numbers have the ability and luxury to care. Then, Christmas Eve arrived.
Christmas Eve was a special day this year. I experienced that odd effect when every article of news, each email I read, was speaking directly to me, each in its own way, and all woven into a singular, oddly unified message. So, I would like to pass along these fragments of thoughts, less to summarize the years events than to utilize thoughtful writings to maybe help me make sense of things at a time when everything seems so random and futile. Maybe these sentiments will open your eyes to personal insights…as they have mine.
First off is a poem I read in this week’s Atlantic. The poem is called The Unspoken by Ada Limon.
The Unspoken
If I am honest, a foal pulled chest-level
close in the spring heat, his every-which-way
coat reverberating in the wind, feels
akin to what I imagine atonement might
feel like, or total absolution. But what
if by some fluke in the heart, an inevitable
wreckage, congenital and unanswerable,
still comes, no matter how attached
or how gentle every hand that reached
out for him in that vibrant green field
where they found him looking like he
was sleeping, the mare nudging him?
Am I wrong to say I did not want to love
horses after that? I even said as much driving
back from the farm. Even now, when
invited to visit a new foal, or to rub the long
neck of a mare who wants only peppermints
or to be left alone, I feel myself resisting.
At any moment, something terrible could
happen. It’s not gone, that coldness in me.
Our mare is pregnant right now,
and you didn’t even tell me until someone
mentioned it offhandedly. One day, I will
be stronger. I feel it coming. I’ll step into
that green field of stoic, hardened, hoof first.
I think we are all experiencing trauma of one sort or another. For myself, its noticing how and when I withdraw from being vulnerable. After reading the poem, I realized what courage it takes to feel out of it, disengaged, even powerless and then re-engaging, getting back into the fray, arming yourself (literally and figuratively) for the challenges ahead…and, still maintain one’s center. To remain open, willing to be hurt, able to continue.
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Then, in the December 24 email issue of The Daily Stoic:
“You wonder why people don’t stand up and do something. The CEO of a large company. The elected official. The general. The athlete.
Aren’t these powerful people? They hold office. They have millions of dollars. They have large platforms. Yet, they stand silent. They look the other way. They hold their fire.
Its because they don’t see themselves as powerful - not yet anyway. The Congresswoman has an eye on a Senate seat, so she’s waiting. The CEO thinks that after their options vest, then they will be in a better position. The millionaire is trying to become a billionaire first. The athlete says after they sign their long-term deal, the general once they retire - then, they’ll do something.
The great Iron Maiden song (and album) ‘POWERSLAVE’ is all about what happens when one becomes addicted to power. It’s like a drug. Your first experience with it is utterly intoxicating, but from that moment forward you never feel like you have enough. And you never want to risk losing what you have, so you’re constantly chasing while simultaneously trying not to be caught out. You’re not in charge, it is.
Marcus Aurelius fought all his life against succumbing to this addiction. In fact, “Meditations” was really his treatment plan. Over and over again, he warns himself, to do the right thing - to not consider the consequences for his career. He tells himself to be good today rather than choose tomorrow. He refused to be a slave to power, and instead used his power to do things for other people.”
The Daily Stoic goes on to say that we need to fight this current battle together, whatever our position or station in life. We have to fight it NOW. Because there are things that need doing, now. Not later.
Then, I read Robert Hubbell’s daily email Dec. 24 - Today’s Edition. Robert is a reliable, insightful and realistically optimistic political reporter.
“Readers sometimes ask how I maintain my sense of optimism against the deluge of bad news. The answer is perspective. And there is no better description of perspective than the essay by Carl Sagan about a photograph taken by Voyager I as it left the solar system. In that photograph, the Earth occupies a single pixel in a vast darkness. [SEE PHOTO taken September 1, 1990] Sagan’s essay, “A Pale Blue Dot”, is an appropriate reflection on our place in the universe and deserves to be read out loud at family gatherings as we close the chapter on a challenging year.”
“Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves…It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.”
I realized that the thread that weaved these three, same-day issuances was the acronym CAP - Courage; Action; Perspective. Not a bad way, at all, to ‘cap’ off the year. I sincerely love you all for lending me your time and intellect and your critical appreciation. I don’t know what I would do without the ability to communicate with you. Have a healthy and productive New Year. May we realize one small thing in others we meet that will lead on us a path of discovering what is common to us all.
PEACE.