We ran headlong into hiding...out of cowardice. Some feared The Illness, others the stigma or political suicide of not following the international trend. Nevertheless, we dove in with no real proof that our measures would actually make a difference (this was NOT the strategy of those countries who have been most successful in stemming the tide), and we did so with little regard for how many people we were hurting in our attempt to help others and, above all, without a sound exit strategy. Actually, we don't even have an UNsound exit strategy.
In our distorted belief that when trouble arises, it is the federal government’s duty to DO SOMETHING to extract us from the pains of life in a broken world, we pined, harangued, bashed, and begged until they responded...some reluctantly and some all too readily. They didn't create the virus, but their response created more problems that they then felt compelled to fix.
Their “fix” has strapped us with additional astronomical generational debt. And it’s motivated by politicians' own fear, greed, and desperate grasps for power and relevance. (I’m not assuming none have a genuine concern for human well-being, but if they do, their solutions create nothing more than a short term feeling of well-being...).
Their “fix” also builds on a foundational assumption that nothing could be worse than an economic downturn (or implosion). We all know that anything built on a faulty foundation will not stand the test of time. The Families First and CARES Acts are fraught with contradictory initiatives (even the NAMES are intended to manipulate how we feel about these additional 975 pages of legislation...No really...975 pages. I know this b/c I've read much of it.) They attempt to sustain small business by offering forgivable loans of 2.5x eight weeks of payroll if these businesses keep their people on the books - while simultaneously increasing unemployment benefits by $600/week (which just so happens to come out to $15/hour...coincidence? I think not.) In so doing, they make it impossible for those same small businesses to keep their $10-13/hour folks employed. After all, why work for $10 when you can NOT work for $15 + a percentage of your lost wages? The only way to get all these unemployed folks back to work is for employers to raise their wage to $15/hour. When will we learn that politics is a world powered by power where strengthening that grip demands weakening human resolve through magnanimous acts that erode dignity and fray the fabric of self-reliance?
Side note 1: I have never understood the hypnotic appeal of raising the minimum wage. The *intent* of shortening the gap between the wealthy and the not wealthy SOUNDS good, but this legislation results in the raised price of goods thereby negating any benefit of that "raise." It doesn't bring the upper and lower classes closer together. Only one thing will bridge that gap: changed hearts. Hearts at both ends of the spectrum that shed their entitlements and care more for one another than for personal rights and personal prosperity.
Side note 2: Our debt-based economy is a house of cards that must inevitably topple. When our attempts to artificially prop it up finally fail, it will be painful - perhaps devastatingly so - but it will create the possibility for something new founded on principles of creativity and community rather than excessivity, consumption, and wealth generation. (Don't hear what I'm NOT saying: wealth is not evil...UNLESS, of course, it is motivated by greed and acquired on the backs of the oppressed. That's not a socialistic, anti-capitalist mindset. I believe it is the economy of the Trinitarian God who shares continually with us out of his abundance. He shares his creativity, his counsel, his material wealth, his everything with us. His generosity is fueled by his self-giving nature, not the acquisition of power over us. His intent is our flourishing, not our groveling dependence.
Side note 3: It is perhaps un-American to say so, but I do not believe self-reliance is, in and of itself, a virtue. The independent spirit we so admire (and of which I have more than my fair share!) when coupled with self-focus, becomes insidious. Taking care of me and mine and the rest of you fend for yourselves, is no more admirable than sitting idly with hands open, demanding they be filled. Self-reliance, when fueled by the desire not to burden others with my needs and when tempered by a desire to generously bolster those whose burden is overly heavy, both confirms dignity in the self and creates bonds of love in the community. And, I think, reaches toward a truly Christian idea of communal life.
Side note 4: I am not an unequivocal apologist for capitalism. So, while I'm critical of the stay-at-home orders partly because of the economic implications, it's not because I believe that economic prosperity, as we view it today, is the ultimate good. Shalom is the ultimate societal good...but that's a whole other topic! I also suspect that a complete economic meltdown could lead to a simplification - a resetting, if you will - of our perceived material needs. It might force an examination of our priorities, our desires, our wantonness, our way of devouring-because-we-can. Even though that is my perspective, I see little wisdom in shutting everything down. Singapore kept life moving while making strategic, rational, data-based decisions on how to shield the most vulnerable while keeping the rest of society functioning. That was a loving approach.
Back to the issue at hand: Our Response to The Illness.
Our collective response appears emotional and reactionary. We are basing our actions on public perception of risk and data that is skewed by multiple factors, including a very limited data set and our choice to present the data in the most sensationalized way. We choose # of cases and # of deaths. Why? Because they present the most terrifying picture that then justifies our decisions? We could just as easily present the % of population who have been tested, % of those returning a positive, % of untested population, % of deaths among those without pre-existing conditions. We could frame our presentation with adjustments for population health, adjustments for lifestyles, etc., etc., etc. We could present the data in all kinds of ways, but we choose the most dramatic...WHY? To keep people tuned in and to keep them begging for solutions? Because we're too lazy to unearth better options? Because we're not systems thinkers? I don't KNOW why, so I speculate.
In the meantime, our reactions have left those who are dying to do so apart from those who love them. Somehow we protect our healthcare workers enough to allow them to be in the hospitals day in and day out, but we cannot protect family members well enough to attend the bedsides of the dying? I cannot find the sense in this no matter how hard I try. We are NOT out of PPE...every day in the grocery store, I see average citizens galore wearing surgical masks and N95s! How can we not provide protected means for visits to happen? In an age marked by agility, creativity, ingenuity...how have we not found a way to dignify the dying with presence...mere presence??? It's a grievous choice.
Another aspect that baffles me is our seeming inability to think clearly, even consistently, within our own declared belief systems. Our flexible moral compass allows us to pick and choose what we believe according to the zeitgeist or emotion of the moment. If I adhere to a survival of the fittest theory, why would I not view this as the inevitable sloughing off of those too weak to survive? It is nature doing what nature does and strengthening the human race. Should I not be at peace with it, instead of panicked by it? If I'm ok with a mother and doctor deciding which fetal life is worth saving, why am I freaked out about a doctor deciding which COVID patient does and doesn't get a ventilator? Why is that life decision more weighty in one situation than the other? How is that decided? I ask a dozen questions along these lines and across the spectrum of beliefs...including my own! Are we reacting consistently with our dogma? If not, why not?
And then, of course, we have a smorgasbord of conspiracy theorists positing how this whole virus was concocted to enact someone's agenda. I don't lend credence to any of them (not b/c I think no one is capable of such heinous acts. History clearly proves otherwise...I just don't believe that's what has happened here); however, I am absolutely enough of a cynic to believe that many opportunists have seized this to advance their personal, corporate, political, religious, or other agenda. Fearful people are pliable people. And pliable people in the hands of powerful people can be fashioned into almost any image.
So...what is the point of this whole rambling rant? I'm not entirely sure. It's not to imply that The Illness is nothing. It's not to be an armchair quarterback suggesting that I know which plays should have been called. I suppose it's primarily a conversation with myself. It's my way of processing thousands of swirling thoughts about how we arrived at this place...how we lost the resilience of our fathers and grandfathers. (I mean...we've read The Hiding Place, yes? And Unbroken? And The Long Walk?) How our lives of ease have made us soft...how our ways of anesthetizing death have made its horror foreign to us. How the relative nonchalance with which we navigate, not only our daily lives, but also the globe, leave us shocked at our sudden immobility...how our running to and fro makes us kick against the stillness. And how...HOW...do we bring forth the best of our individual and collective selves in this strange place we now inhabit?
How do the fearful understand the stoic? Those who run toward danger with noble resolve understand those who shrink from it? Those who shift with agility understand those who stubbornly fight change? Those who believe in the goodness of shared resources understand those who defend the goodness of autonomy? Those who laugh understand those who weep?
I suppose understanding is found first in not fearing one another's perspectives. By listening to and dignifying my fellow man. By lending credibility to his thoughts and feelings as arising from his particular experiences (which are likely different than mine). By speaking my own position, not from a desire to intimidate or to assert my superiority, but from a desire to genuinely engage. By reining in my propensity to judge, to condescend, to berate any perspective other than my own.
This is hard work. But it is the hard work of loving my neighbor...and is that not the great healing balm we all need? Whether our efforts to slow The Illness work or don't...whether we suffer long and deep or whether some great discovery springs forth to snuff it out. Whatever happens, the best salve for our loss, our grief, our anger, our suspicion, our arrogance, our stubbornness, is really rather mundane - to unbind our fists and extend our hands to serve and love one another well
