An opportunity for descent

Notes to Pandemic I

While so many people around me seem to be wound up, feeling fear and anxiety of the unknown ahead, I feel a sort of strange calm and even a sense of relief and wonder.  Without making light of or denying the valid fears and threats posed by this illness— nor wanting to diminish the tragedy of lives lost—I believe this crisis might be a gift, a wake-up call, an opportunity to heed the warnings that have been building in all realms of life. In fact, I believe this acute “crisis” offers us something quite crucial and needed in these times, that myself and several others have long referred to as times of generalized crises. (Crises of social inequity, of the environment, of democracy, of identity, and so many others).

 At the very least it is a moment of forced pause, for hunkering down, for reflection, for connection, for descent.[1] It is a manifestation of “crisis” around the world that is not nearly as violent or dramatic as many other crises we have recently lived through or heard about on the news, and that we know are coming as the impacts of Climate Change become more and more present to us. As so many studies have shown us, and as the Chinese character for crisis even translates, crises are not necessarily scary and bad, they are also opportunities. Opportunity to do things differently, to choose a different course. They have the potential remind us of who and what we truly are: kind, loving, social, generous, care-taking, responsible creatures (not the greedy, selfish, violent, hoarding visions of ourselves we have been told we are by media, politics, and even some social sciences!)

Below are some ways of seeing this as a moment of opportunity:

1) Social Distancing. I have been really struck by this word. It is named as one of the key measures to be taken at this moment of pandemic. At first it felt so ironic and even deeply disturbing to me that social distancing and isolation were being proffered as tools of healing when in many ways they are the exact opposite of what we need in the grander scheme of this historical period characterized by so much isolation, loneliness, and social distancing.  But as I reflected it seemed almost perfect. It occurred to me that in the naming of social distancing, especially with respect to the particular kinds of social gatherings over 50 or over 250 people, we may very well find ourselves recovering and rediscovering our need and love of TRUE social intimacy, of the bonds of those closest to us: family, friends, neighborhood and community. While we are encouraged to practice social distancing, it is only distancing from the anonymous crowds.  As such, we may become more cognizant of the beauty and positivity of community and relationship, and even recognize the crisis of  social intimacy, of loneliness, and mad individualism—we have been dealing with for quite a while.

2)The Economy:  That the stock market is crashing seems almost poetic justice considering that in the last few weeks so many supposed Progressives voted against their “Progressive values” because they feared that voting for Bernie would lead the stock market to crash and it did anyways.  I also find it important because it points to the fantasy like nature of this economy so much apparently depends on.  The crash can invite us to reflect, what is this wealth that can disappear because of predictions and fears in the financial realm?  Does this wealth really exist? Does it really make us better off? Does it feed, clothe, shelter those who need it?

 Again, I am not suggesting that there aren’t real effects of the economic crashes, nor that the poor won’t bear the brunt if business as usual continues to prevail. As we know, Trump and others will attempt to use this opportunity to privatize social security and create new normals of higher subsidies for Oil companies, etc—what Naomi Klein coined “Disaster Capitalism.” But there is an opportunity here for us to do something else, to wake up to the gross inequities this system thrives on and requires. To call them out before they do this. Remember, we’ll actually have some time to talk to one another as we are forced to stay home. And talking is important. It can break through walls. So can the reality of biology, virus and infection.

 3) Reality. I was sitting on the beach (yes I was more than 6 feet away) and I overheard someone speaking on the phone.  He said,

“I don’t understand why they’re making such a big deal about Covid-19, actually I do. It’s because they want to destroy the economy. Thank God Trump is President, that we have the travel ban, otherwise it would be so much worse.”

 This is also part of this moment. While on the one hand it horrified me that this was his thinking, on the other, I started to wonder: maybe he will finally understand the lies he is being fed on social media and other propaganda when the US really faces the illness here, when someone he cares about is affected. Maybe reality will hit him and others like him, breaking through the toxic wall of hateful misinformation the populist right thrives on. Perhaps it will also be a reminder to him and all of us to recognize our vulnerability and our mutual interdependence in this radically interconnected universe. 

 Anyways, these are just some thoughts, on this moment. Again this is in no way meant to dismiss or belittle the lives lost, or the pain people are experiencing. Just an attempt to see some light in these times being pitched as endlessly terrifying and dark.     

 I was recently forwarded this poem and I think it says it probably much better than I did above:

Pandemic
What if you thought of it

as the Jews consider the Sabbath—

the most sacred of times?

Cease from travel.

Cease from buying and selling.

Give up, just for now,

on trying to make the world

different than it is.

Sing. Pray. Touch only those

to whom you commit your life.

Center down.

And when your body has become still,

reach out with your heart.

Know that we are connected

in ways that are terrifying and beautiful.

(You could hardly deny it now.)

Know that our lives

are in one another’s hands.

(Surely, that has come clear.)

Do not reach out your hands.

Reach out your heart.

Reach out your words.

Reach out all the tendrils

of compassion that move, invisibly,

where we cannot touch.

Promise this world your love--

for better or for worse,

in sickness and in health,

so long as we all shall live.

--Lynn Ungar 3/11/20]

[1] as Bayo Akomolafe recently put it.

(Originally published: 3/12/20)