The COVID pandemic has killed, caused economic and social carnage, and continues to spawn variants with difficult to define powers. Yet, it has provided a near-obligatory opportunity for those who are inclined to solitude to grow and actualize.
My pandemic has been wrought with culturally shared frustrations, but instead of pining for social events, I’ve gotten a lot of good work done. I finished my house, built a boat, ditched a crappy relationship, welcomed a coonhound, grew my business in a positive way, and kicked into gear the secular monasticism to which I had been longing to return.
I’ve passed my time sheltered, putzing merrily, reading the news more frequently than I like, but not excessively. I’ve watched a lot of Star Trek, which highlights a collection of Earth-associated hominids functioning with high ethical standards and professional competence.
The virus still rages, but I have my Pfizer shot, and can reluctantly go to the hardware store, grocery, and recycling facility. I can visit with a neighbor. I can be a bit more interactive with the contractors I’ve had to hire to trim the trees and put up a dog fence. And I’m struggling.
I’m going to make some generalizations here, so if you’re an exception, I’m tipping my hat your way. Many people here are behaving selfishly. For all their long winded and short-sighted flagwaving about our great nation, they seek only their personal freedom without personal responsibility. Kids vandalizing property while at work with their dad, maskless parents parading litters of smudgy children through communal spaces, kitchen staff with slipping masks and noses exposed hustling about over the food. People dropping their mask to speak to me as a courtesy. I have educated acquaintances with parents in dire health not getting the vaccine because a friend heard that someone went blind in one eye… And visitors who take their first opportunities to socialize after their vaccine as opportunities to gossip meanly about others. I don’t need to detail the politics of the age to further my point.
I am aware that I sound like a horridly cranky old person. I’m not sure that there’s much I can say to sound less disgruntled. I’ve been driven to such a state of disdain that in an effort to dampen the impact on me, I haven’t worn my hearing aids in a week.
There’s been a lot in the news lately about how fewer Americans are going to church. Those who remain in faithful attendance see this as a crisis. Those who perceive the church as hypocritical and find their ethics in their humanity may see this as a reason to celebrate. What in actuality may be happening is that people are becoming too self-centered to go. It takes a lot of energy to be involved in one of the newer charismatic evangelical congregations. The traditional congregations are having difficulty maintaining relevance in a rapidly changing world.
(I’m typing outside by the bird feeders, the juncos are finding seed on the ground right around my feet presently. Makes me quite chuffed.)
Although I was raised Lutheran, baptized Episcopalian, I was primarily raised with Humanist ethics. With free will comes personal responsibility. With intelligence, with dexterity, with economic stability comes additional responsibility. It’s a lot. But it’s also a joy. We were encouraged to be makers, thinkers, athletes, communicators in our house. We skated, juggled, unicycled, and played myriad instruments. My brothers and I took these lessons in various ways, but here I am carrying them with me in the best way that I can.
This kind of Humanism may be our way out of this hole. Instead of free will simply being a license, it’s a responsibility. Instead of seeking benefits for oneself, one is obliged to be steward to the world- its people, creatures, and environment. With our brains, we are responsible to exercise our synapses through learning and creativity. With our hands, we are responsible to leverage positive change.
It’s a Monday, and typically I spend Mondays charting a task schedule to help the week go smoothly and effectively. The best thing that I can do today would be to get myself back on course to affect positive humanist change. Time to put my hearing aids back in.