Tapping The Breaks
Two things up front:
Thing 1: Cool News for those following the story: Our son returned as scheduled – healthy and happy, if somewhat road-weary – from his travels in Chile. More to come on that…
Thing 2: I’ll be holding a Men’s Call next week on Thursday, April 2 at 11 AM EDT, 8 AM PDT, 4 PM BST, 5 PM CEST. It’ll be an opportunity for a community check-in – at no charge, of course – as we’re sheltering in place or otherwise staying put… Please plan on joining. (I’ll be sending out details for registering later this week.)
Now for this week’s article
Unless you’re of an essential services ilk – and huge, heartfelt, sincere bow of gratitude to those of you who are – there’s not much to be gained in asking where you might be going today…
With all that’s happening, as a New Yorker, I’ve been off-the-charts thrilled with the way our Governor, Andrew Cuomo, has been delivering updates in a factual, no BS manner – just laying out the facts and, when offering an opinion, including “Opinion” as a header on his PowerPoint slides.
Leadership matters…
But that’s not what I want to talk about today.
First, the obvious: We are, of course, in the midst of the most serious public health crisis to come along since the appearance of AIDS and, arguably, since the time of the plague.
In the spirit of Governor Cuomo, calling it like it is, we’re in it for the long run and every one of us will, at the very least, have the experience of witnessing someone we love getting sick…
In the swirl of it all, the human world has been forced into low gear.
The streets are mostly empty. Schools, theaters and shops have gone dark…
And while the current platter we’re being presented is anything but silver, (let’s be honest and not try to pretty this up in any way – or be tempted to jump into any seductive emotional- or spiritual-bypass black holes) we’ve been served an extraordinary opportunity to dig into life at a very, very different pace.
If I’m really honest with myself – and with all who are reading this – I’m finding pleasure, joy, rest, and more than a few options for creative expression at this imposed, slower pace…
I’m baking bread, (sourdoughs, in case you’re wondering…) writing songs, (again!) recreating a program for online delivery, toying with new ideas for my own work, having some amazing, deep, often hilarious conversations – much of it moved from so many back burners by tapping the brakes.
None of us asked for this. And yet, here it is…
As I see it right now, there are three choices we’ve all got in front of us.
The first is the choice to find one’s way to acceptance – not to be confused or conflated with approval or resignation, by the way – of the state of the world.
The second is to choose whether or not to tap one’s own brakes to match the pace of a world suddenly moving slower.
The third, based on the first two, is to choose what to do – whether it’s something altogether new or something that comes off one’s own back burner – once the brakes have been tapped.
Choose well…
Choose wisely…
And don’t miss this…