“I imagine God is weary of being called down on both sides of an argument.” — Cold Mountain
We’re all ordinary people, with very few exceptions. By “ordinary,” I mean we have average jobs, typical interests, and a few fairly normal relationships. Before 2020, we struggled with the usual sicknesses, keeping up with the Kardashians, paying our bills on time, and getting our smartphone to work. We were normal, with normal challenges. Life was simple, cyclical, and (mostly) manageable. In 2020, we suddenly became experts on pharmaceutical processes, CDC operations, and global strategies for dealing with the pandemic. We use words we’d never heard before, like co-morbidity factors, spike proteins, mRNA, and cytokine storm, now as commonly as we once said, “Did you remember to turn off the oven?” How is it that we are all experts when only two years ago we struggled with the challenges of our day to day?
This is why I avoid talking about the pandemic. I avoid talking about politics, too, if I can. I avoid it because I’ve hit a wall of exhaustion and talking about it only makes it worse. I’m sure many of you have hit similar walls. I am tired of all the noise and the rhetoric. I am worn weary by the silence in our cities from being locked down. I am at my end mentally, and I am burdened spiritually. No matter who I am talking with, they think they are right. They are the hero of their version of this crazy story. They are categorically convinced their “research” is more correct. That their sources had better, more accurate insider information. Even the most amicable among us have lost our cognitive flexibility, becoming rigid in our thinking, outsourcing our minds to our favorite pundits, daily dousing ourselves in our preferred talking points.
I’m tired of all the talk from these self-appointed experts. I’m tired of losing respect for people based on what they say. I’m tired of having to keep my mouth shut for fear of what I might lose because someone might not like what I say.
Perhaps most tiring is how reason, logic, patriotism, and God are called upon to fit every narrative.
The setting of the movie I quoted, Cold Mountain, is the American Civil War. That quote from that era seems sadly fitting. It took us four long years of war before we’d had our fill of hatred for each other. This pandemic has taken a shape that reminds me of a kind of civil war. After two years, we’ve proven that we are tired of many things. Arguing, hatred, and violence aren’t among them. We haven’t had our fill yet. Unless we change, more death will be the cost. I don’t mean political change. I don’t mean that you should take up arms and fight. This battle cannot be won in a war of metal and flesh or cunning words and policy. This is not about our freedom.
This is about the way that we treat each other.
This pandemic has shown us just how selfish we truly are. We see our authentic selves reflected in how we have treated ourselves through this entire ordeal. I say “ourselves” because no matter how divided we become, we are still one. Those who have lost sight of this truth are most guilty of perpetrating crimes against it. Any hatred towards my neighbor is hatred towards myself. This is why I do not accept the debate over how we are losing our freedoms. What freedom did we ever have, if not the freedom to treat a stranger as a brother? What have we fought to keep, if not freedom to love our neighbor, even in disagreement? What is freedom without the opportunity to build a society of decency and tolerance? Without these things, we simply trade one tyrant for another, slaves to selfishness, blind to our attachments and our programming. We are upset about the wrong things.
Freedoms can be taken away from us. True freedom can never be taken away. History will be favorable to those who concluded that freedom meant that kindness, decency, and empathy would be our standard. These are the hallmarks of a truly free people. No one can take away your ability to love. They cannot take away humility and decency. We give those things up. And if we give these things up, we truly give up our freedom. We lose that last shred of light that is holding us together. We lose what good remains in us, and we lose our ability to see the light and the goodness in others. We lose our humanity and our divinity, and only suffering remains.
They cannot take away our faith in humanity or Providence, so we must not give it up.
There are things we can never be wrong about. It will never be wrong to behave with decency, kindness and empathy. We must cling to light, to goodness. We must keep this light alive within us.
The future may be bleak. Or not. No one can predict the next hour with certainty. However, no future is as bleak as one void of love, hope, and faith. Take your stand on those, and the rest will sort itself out. Yes, you may sound ignorant at times. You will lose arguments. You may lose more. But you will not have lost anything worth keeping.
Treating others with dignity is the only kind of dignity we should worry about losing.
Do not get distracted. Do not let your annoyance and anger decide how you will treat others. We are all weary. We are all tired. We are all breaking and broken. We must not fight each other. We must fight for peace.
Fight for peace
I loved this one! Found it refreshing… hopefully we come out of this a little kinder towards each other.