3/28 Covid-19 Update: "Uncovering once more that (blessed) common belonging, of which we cannot be deprived: our belonging as brothers and sisters"
Happy weekend(?),
I realized yesterday that this last week has been the most socially isolated I've ever been in my entire life. That fact didn't necessarily feel good or bad when it dawned on me, but just interesting. Even though my life is basically one endless Microsoft Teams call right now, and I have probably more online interactions with coworkers and friends than ever before, I think it's the most time I've spent physically alone. Even living by myself - I'm around people at work all day and usually doing things after work until late in the evening. And living in Seattle means that most moments out in nature here (floating in lakes, going on walks, chasing sunsets) still involve some other human beings in your general vicinity. I've actually gotten really good the last year or so at finding solitude in the midst of other people.
But being alone alone is different. It's probably good for me in a lot of ways. Maybe I'll build some new muscles and bring a degree of intentionality to my daily choices that I didn't really have before. With all the travel I normally do (I think these last few weeks is by far the longest stretch I've stayed in one place in several years), I've gotten okay at keeping myself company - but I'm motivated now to actually be good company to myself, because that's pretty much my only choice (minus a few special guests, featured below).
I think that's my hope for all of us today. That if our brains try to bring in voices that are bad company (maybe just because we're lonely or scared?) - the voices that tell us that we're not doing enough, or not reacting appropriately, or that we're not navigating this new, uncertain world the "appropriate" way, that we'll make those voices a cup of tea (or tequila) and stick them in a corner and tell them they just need to be quiet for a little bit. I think maybe I'm moving into the acceptance phase of grief (temporarily - I'm sure I'll be back to anger momentarily), and Cheryl Strayed says that acceptance is a small quiet room, and that alone isn't a state of being, but a room where we can retreat to be who we really are.
Here's to building rooms like that for ourselves. I'm terrible at it, but I'm going to try.
Love,
Alison
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Tl;dr:
Last night Pope Francis stood in an empty, rainy St. Peter's Square and offered a blessing for "the city and the world" and a special prayer for the end to coronavirus. He "granted an exceptional plenary indulgence for Roman Catholics across the world suffering from the virus, and for health care workers — but most of all, for those who may die in isolation, unable to receive their last rites".(I think it's probably extremely sacreligious to Tl;dr the pope -- so please all spare me from my Catholic guilt and read the whole thing):
"We find ourselves afraid and lost," Francis said. "We were caught off-guard by an unexpected, turbulent storm. We have realized that we are on the same boat, all of us fragile and disoriented ... all of us called to row together, each of us in need of comforting the other...
The storm exposes our vulnerability and uncovers those false and superfluous certainties around which we have constructed our daily schedules, our projects, our habits and priorities. It shows us how we have allowed to become dull and feeble the very things that nourish, sustain and strengthen our lives and our communities. The tempest lays bare all our prepackaged ideas and forgetfulness of what nourishes our people’s souls; all those attempts that anesthetize us with ways of thinking and acting that supposedly “save” us, but instead prove incapable of putting us in touch with our roots and keeping alive the memory of those who have gone before us. We deprive ourselves of the antibodies we need to confront adversity.
In this storm, the façade of those stereotypes with which we camouflaged our egos, always worrying about our image, has fallen away, uncovering once more that (blessed) common belonging, of which we cannot be deprived: our belonging as brothers and sisters."
Recommended Reading:
We'll lose 'World War C' against the coronavirus if we don't fight the right way-- An article by Dr. Tom Frieden (follow on twitter here), former director of the CDC and now CEO of Resolve to Save Lives (great name for an NGO!), about how the lack of a coordinated federal response means life or death for a lot of people right now --- and ten immediate things that need to be done to fix it. "I feel less safe because it's not clear that the CDC's expertise is feeding into the decisions that are being made, and these are life and death decisions," says Frieden. "We are less safe because the CDC doesn't have the voice and the role it needs to have."
As The Coronavirus Crisis Heats Up, Why Isn't America Hearing From The CDC?: The CDC normally takes the lead in outbreaks, ranging from the 2009 flu pandemic to Ebola to the lung injuries caused by vaping. Its recent absence from the national stage has led to fears that the agency's objective, science-based approach is being ignored, especially as Trump signals that he hopes to relax restrictions on social gatherings by Easter to help revive the economy. That idea has horrified public health experts outside of the government, who say that the virus is spreading rapidly and that social distancing measures still need time to work.
ER doctor who criticized Bellingham hospital’s coronavirus protections has been fired (This is the hospital i was born at and I'm ashamed of it).
‘White Collar Quarantine’ Over Virus Spotlights Class Divide - "A pandemic caste system is rapidly developing: the rich holed up in vacation properties; the middle class marooned at home with restless children; the working class on the front lines of the economy, stretched to the limit.
David Chang isn’t sure the restaurant industry will survive Covid-19: "I think for restaurants and the service industry, there is going to be a morbidly high business death rate. My fear is the restaurants that survive are going to be the big chains, and we’re going to eradicate the very eclectic mix that makes America and going out to eat so vibrant and great."
Things I saw that made me feel better less/alone
Video I took out my window last night of Seattle cheering on frontline healthcare workers. I hate that they've been put in position - this never should have happened and cheering does nothing to make up for the way the federal government has failed them -- but at the very least, they deserve our cheers and thanks.
speak love into people. speak light into people. speak faith into people. speak abdundance into people. speak truth into people. speak warmth into people. speak peace into people. whatever you wish, want, or hope, speak that into yourself and others. - @JoelakaMaG
Covid-19 Poem of the Day:
Colonize
You split the world
into pieces and
called them countries
declared ownership on
what never belonged to you
and left the rest with nothing
-Rupi Kaur
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Francis and I started watching Tiger King last night (!!!), and I made a delirious impulse eBay by the other night to add to our #quaranteam. Who knows how many I'll have by the time this thing is over.
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