COURAGE

Here in Tuscany 2021 arrived shrouded in fog. Joel and I had decided to spend the evening alone.  It seemed enough to celebrate that the two of us have so far survived the pandemic but also the fact that for the foreseeable future we will be isolated here in our little nest.  As we sat by the warmth of the fire-bowl, the fog drew closer as the old year left and by the time the new year arrived we could not even see the perimeter of the garden. A perfect metaphor for where we all find ourselves in this moment: isolated and unable to see the future.

So why do I feel so positive?  Well, I’m still alive for one thing.  And vaccines are arriving albeit slower than was promised; still they are on the way. Yes there are more people infected, but treatment has improved and percentage-wise there are fewer deaths. Then there is the positive Biden/Harris win and the state of Georgia voting 2 democrats to the Senate…one a Black man and the other a Jew.  Yes, I know a terrible thing also happened that day, but let’s not act all surprised and doomed. We knew it was coming and it probably isn’t over yet, like the pandemic it, too, will have to run its course.  Our choice, as always, is what to focus on, how to spend our energy. Surely we can all take hope from the elections as proof that nothing is forever and that the positive outweighs the negative.

I also, and bear with me because this may sound strange, but I also feel that this new surge of the virus and the ensuing, necessary lockdowns are, in their own way a good thing.  I realize that for too many people this will mean enormous loss and suffering and this saddens me.  But I also believe that there are many of us who need to experience hardships that existed for the majority of people pre-pandemic. We humans only change for the better when circumstances force us to become conscious and surrender.  So I remain hopeful that while nirvana will never be achieved, there is a good chance that some things will change for the better for those who have so little now. Not to mention the possibility of greening our precious planet.

There is, however, one aspect of the pandemic that greatly disturbs me and that is the selfishness of a percentage of young people. I’ve gone back and forth on this over the last few months, from at first wondering if it would be better to let the young live their lives as usual as they were least likely to suffer from the virus.  Feeling sorry for them for missed graduations and parties I, for a while, agreed with some who thought the young deserved a summer of freedom after all they had suffered. I no longer feel that way.  Apart from the fact that they are carriers of the virus, spreading it to those of us who are vulnerable, more than anything I think “no,” no demographic has the right to do as they wish, to escape responsibility and the hardships that so many are going through.  “Oh, but they’re young,” people say.  And I say, yes, and so were all those 18 year-old boys who went off to war, and the young girls who were sent to work on farms and in factories.

This narcissistic age of “likes” and selfies is robbing youth of the need to develop a moral core.  I say put youth to work. If they have time to party and walk the streets without masks, then they have time to be trained to help vaccinate people; to work on food distribution; to tutor younger kids struggling with online learning.  I’m not painting the entire younger generation with a tar brush as I know and read of many who are doing all the right things. And for sure there are many “adults” who think they have the right to flaunt the regulations – traveling where and whenever they want without masks or social distancing.  Between them and the governments who have acted too late with every surge, the rest of us are having to pay the price of enduring lockdowns that could have been avoided.

But enough of that. Let’s return to the positive.  Spring will come. We will blossom. Summer will come and combined with the most vulnerable being vaccinated we will all enjoy its warmth. Yes, it will be a while before we are mask-free and huggable, but we can still rejoice in each other and nature.  Two examples: My daughter lives in the country Upstate New York. The day, after a heavy snowfall lit by morning sunlight, she decided to visit her favourite field. Months of solitary isolation have not squelched her indomitable spirit. There she was, in the vast landscape willing to celebrate it alone. As she turned to trudge back to her car she saw another figure coming across the field. As he got closer she saw it was an old friend she hadn’t seen for a long time and so the two of them stood back to back and had a reverse hug.

When the fog finally lifted here around noon on New Year’s Day, I went out into the garden where my eye was immediately caught by the arrival of a lone rose. For me it was proof that life goes on, even in isolation.  Reverse hugs, a January rose, the vaccinations, a new president, the human spirit, and spring, just around the corner.

I hope each of you find your little bit of nature today and that it gives you courage and joy.

With love,

Maggie