6/26/2020 0 Comments Living with Mixed MessagesHaving spent the past few days pondering my wondering and wonderings, I began to realize just how much my daily activities are influenced by all the mixed messages I get every single day. More than every day, it is just about every hour, every minute. Just when I think I have a grasp on reality, reality shifts. For example, I just finished watching the latest White House briefing on the Coronavirus, (COVID 19) update. Vice President Pence, Dr Birks, Dr Fauci and others gave their prospectives on the status of the global pandemic. It appeared to me they may not have spoke with each other before the briefing since each seemed to be briefing the country on very different realities. There were prospectives on testing ranging from virtually no mention of testing to the concern that testing may not be enough. And masks. Masks have become such an incendiary topic. Political where politics should have nothing to do with it. It seems to me wearing a mask is a matter of protecting others while praying that others will do the same for me. And what about Black Lives Matter? It is simple, obvious to me, that, yes, Black Lives Matter. And the whole point of the movement and the protests is that we as a society have been acting overall as if black lives don't matter. Keeping the lid on this boiling pot has certainly backfired. Yes, all lives to matter, but until that is true, we really, truly must be proactive in supporting the uprising realization that Black Lives (do indeed) Matter. And there are the little things of every day life. I here that its time to get back to normal. Normal? What is normal? I here what we are living with now is the New Normal. It seems we can never go back to normal. Normal is shaking hands, hugging, crowding together, sharing experiences together like movies and concerts, in confined places. Just isn't gonna happen any time soon. Terms we had never really even heard of before early March of this year like "social distancing" and "coronavirus" and even "community spread" were not something we heard or spoke daily. Now we hear it everywhere we go and with everyone we talk with. That is all part of the New Normal. So, yes, I have been wondering and wandering in light of this new reality. Wondering why, how did we get here and wandering through the new landscape of fear, isolation and hope. Yes, I said "hope'. I still have hope. I still believe we can move beyond life as we know it today. Mixed messages, including misinformation and denials, affirmations and facts, require us to do a bit of "community speed" of our own every day. Seek clarification. Get the facts. Learn who to listen to. Fact check. And always look people in the eye, especially when wearing a mask and keeping your distance. It overcomes the feeling that we are alone in this. From COVID to uprisings and protests, there is no mixed message in recognizing we are in this together. And together, we will go through all this madness, and yes, establish what may just be a better and more perfect "normal" way of life.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Rob McMurray,
|