As part of our What’s on your mind? blog series, we will be posting mid-month entries by CCJ staff as a way for you to get to know us better and to provide topical variety that is of interest to our members. This first entry is by Kristen Locy.
I was originally going to write this post on the book Crude Justice by Stuart Smith. Crude Justice is a fantastic book that reads like a legal thriller as a Louisiana lawyer takes on some of the biggest oil companies in the world for poisoning oil workers and local communities – and he wins, big time. It’s both horrifying to see the atrocities and complete disregard for human life of these companies, but it is also uplifting to see it is possible for communities like ours to fight back and to win. So, please check out that book, there’s a lot to learn from it. However, I also understand that during this time of incredible uncertainty it is hard to think of much else besides taking it one day at a time and keeping your loved ones safe.
So, I thought I’d focus more on some poems I have found in the past few days that have given me solace. Hopefully they will give you some too.
Pandemic
What if you thought of it
as the Jews consider the Sabbath—
the most sacred of times?
Cease from travel.
Cease from buying and selling.
Give up, just for now,
on trying to make the world
different than it is.
Sing. Pray. Touch only those
to whom you commit your life.
Center down.
And when your body has become still,
reach out with your heart.
Know that we are connected
in ways that are terrifying and beautiful.
(You could hardly deny it now.)
Know that our lives
are in one another’s hands.
(Surely, that has come clear.)
Do not reach out your hands.
Reach out your heart.
Reach out your words.
Reach out all the tendrils
of compassion that move, invisibly,
where we cannot touch.
Promise this world your love–
for better or for worse,
in sickness and in health,
so long as we all shall live.
Lynn Ungar 3/11/20
Lockdown
Yes there is fear.
Yes there is isolation.
Yes there is panic buying.
Yes there is sickness.
Yes there is even death.
But,
They say that in Wuhan after so many years of noise
You can hear the birds again.
They say that after just a few weeks of quiet
The sky is no longer thick with fumes
But blue and grey and clear.
They say that in the streets of Assisi
People are singing to each other
across the empty squares,
keeping their windows open
so that those who are alone
may hear the sounds of family around them.
They say that a hotel in the West of Ireland
Is offering free meals and delivery to the housebound.
Today a young woman I know
is busy spreading fliers with her number
through the neighbourhood
So that the elders may have someone to call on.
Today Churches, Synagogues, Mosques and Temples
are preparing to welcome
and shelter the homeless, the sick, the weary
All over the world people are slowing down and reflecting
All over the world people are looking at their neighbours in a new way
All over the world people are waking up to a new reality
To how big we really are.
To how little control we really have.
To what really matters.
To Love.
So we pray and we remember that
Yes there is fear.
But there does not have to be hate.
Yes there is isolation.
But there does not have to be loneliness.
Yes there is panic buying.
But there does not have to be meanness.
Yes there is sickness.
But there does not have to be disease of the soul
Yes there is even death.
But there can always be a rebirth of love.
Wake to the choices you make as to how to live now.
Today, breathe.
Listen, behind the factory noises of your panic
The birds are singing again
The sky is clearing,
Spring is coming,
And we are always encompassed by Love.
Open the windows of your soul
And though you may not be able
to touch across the empty square,
Sing.
Fr. Richard Hendrick, OFM, 3/13/20
And the people stayed home. And read books, and listened, and rested, and exercised, and made art, and played games, and learned new ways of being, and were still. And listened more deeply. Some meditated, some prayed, some danced. Some met their shadows. And the people began to think differently. And the people healed. And, in the absence of people living in ignorant, dangerous, mindless, and heartless ways, the earth began to heal. And when the danger passed, and the people joined together again, they grieved their losses, and made new choices, and dreamed new images, and created new ways to live and heal the earth fully, as they had been healed.
Kitty O’Meara
In light of this risk that I am taking very very seriously, I am going to be grateful for this time I get to spend with my family. This opportunity to slow down. To reevaluate what’s important. It can be hard to unplug from the news as we are trying to gather enough accurate information to protect ourselves. But I am trying to force myself to also balance unplugging. I am going to read books I’ve meant to read, plant my garden, go out and fish on nice spring days. Remember what nourishes you – your faith, nature, poetry, playing with your dog.
Things are going to get hard for a little bit, and even though we can’t be physically close we need each other more than ever.
To my fellow young people, remember that isolating yourself is an act of love for your community. This isn’t about you, it’s about protecting all of the older people you love and the ones other people love.
Check in on each other. Ask your neighbor who lives alone if they need anything or just want to chat. Spread love and kindness, not fear and hate. We can’t hold hands and hug each other, but we can love each other with our actions and we can sing together like these Italians in Sienna:.
People of Siena, Italy sing a song Viva la nostra Siena (hooray for our Siena) together, from their windows to raise their spirits during the Italian #COVID19 lockdown ?? pic.twitter.com/jBSbkvds4d
— Coronavirus (@SARS_COVID19) March 13, 2020
This particular song, from the city of Siena, is an ode to the beauty of the city. Residents actually put a new verse in, which goes like this: “Even with thunder and lightning, we are not afraid of you, garbage virus.”
A saying in Italy right now goes: We’re gonna stand far from each other now so that we can embrace each other later.
It is a human impulse to become selfish, aggressive, and blind to reality out of intense fear. We can’t afford to fall into those impulses. Instead we need to open our hearts even more to each other. We need to be gentle, kind, and selfless. Our community, our country, and our ancestors have faced so many other challenges like this in the past with grace and bravery – the 1918 flu pandemic, two world wars, 9/11, natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina or Maria, the West Virginia Water Crisis. Find strength in the past. We must love each other in these times of uncertainty. Love your family, love your neighbors, love your community, love your fellow Americans, love everyone else suffering around the world right now. We will get through this together like we always have. It will make us stronger as we realize our deep interconnectedness in this world.
