June 9, 2021

Dramatic, perhaps. But I think it’s the perfect metaphor for these pandemic times. The extent of our collision with COVID was the result of inept and arrogant navigation. It was malfeasance and many people died while the administration focused on rearranging the deck chairs and playing music no one was dancing to.

In the US the pandemic killed more than half a million people and traumatized millions more. It will take time to work through that trauma. And although I’ve been less
traumatized living here in the forest, I appreciate that it’s very real for so many. After I
wrote about the Boulder graduation event, I dear friend who teaches high school sent me this video, Numb, created by student Liv McNeil who welcomes this being shared with credit to her and M83, the band who made the music. It’s really well done and powerful. Here’s the link: Numb

So yes, the Titanic was sunk by in competent navigation and an iceberg which was seen too late. And they only saw the tip of it. What was underwater was much more dangerous. Such is the nature of icebergs and such is the nature of our relationship with the pandemic.

Entitlement is the iceberg that has traumatized us. I will step around issues of gender and race because this is far more pervasive. We didn’t choose this entitled attitude. It’s a consequence of our cultural conditioning. But here we are. 

We believe we are entitled to lives and lifestyles of our own choosing and making, lifestyles we’ve become comfortable with and accustomed to. And we are not happy when that entitlement is challenged by change. Change is generally not popular, especially when it is beyond our control like the whole world being slammed into pandemic isolation. The problem is that change happens and if our entitled perspective drives us to rail against the change and focus only on returning to the way things were, we miss the opportunity to navigate the change with resilience. We miss the opportunity to evaluate the-way-it-was and whether that really served us well, as individuals and a global community. We miss the opportunity to work with change rather than against it.

These are Titanic times. The question I sit with is whether we will be able to navigate these waters and avoid more collisions with entitlement. 

Beannacht,
Judith – judith@stonefires.com