Corona And The Looking Glass

            Earlier I wrote a blog post about how I used to write love letters to myself in order to cultivate self-love. While I am not ashamed of the example letter I gave, I also know that that post was not my favorite one to write. The blog post I wanted to write about was on hope and honoring ones’ values. I didn't want to write that blog post because I’ve been feeling a little insecure in my blogging lately. Who would want to read my blog? How do I make this sound like it’s not an online journal? How do I not sound like a self-entitled 20-something year old?

            Despite these doubts, I feel that what I have to say in this blog post is important, it’s about the Coronavirus. Originally I wasn't going to blog about the Coronavirus because we have enough opinions about it in our society. I’m tired of all the Facebook posts about hoarding, businesses closing and social distancing. It is exhausting navigating all this hype. I don’t want to be a part of any of this hype, yet it is impossible not to because it feels as if all the systems I’m apart of are shutting down do to the hype and regulations. Right now I am grateful that Casper, my feline fur baby, is giving me a sense of normalcy. 

            It makes me anxious that I have to recreate a sense of structure in order to help feel grounded during this war against COVID-19. However my anxiety, which has skyrocketed over the last couple of weeks, has been more over peoples’ reactions to the COVID-19 than anything else. As an empath, it is impossible not feel the anxiety and depression in the air others have do to social distancing and the fear of the inability to control our lives. I am wearing a coat made out of the emotions’ of others I didn't ask for.  However, I think in order to not get sucked into a vicious cycle, we need to take a step back and look in ourselves. 

            When I was younger, I used to love natural disaster movies. The Day After Tomorrowand Independence Day were two of my favorite. I’m a hopeless romantic; I will choose a romantic comedy over an action adventure movie any day. But to me movies like the Day After Tomorrowwere not about the action, it was about humanity uniting over having a common enemy.  Tornados, volcano eruptions, alien invasions, they were all about humans coming together to defeat their enemy. The best part was that since they were all natural disasters (minus the alien invasion) there was no debate that the enemy was. Humanity’s common enemy cannot be another human because there is debate about if that human still deserves the respect of being human. 

            COVID-19 is humanity’s common enemy because while there is debate about the seriousness about the virus, nobody can disagree that the effects of the virus is our enemy. Obviously I am not glad the COVID-19 exists and my prayers go out to the people in the medical profession right now, but I do acknowledge that there is something meaningful about humanity coming together despite our differences in this murky time. 

            My hope over the next few weeks is that people start to refocus their energy and start to engage in conversations about solidarity. I can only give an American perspective since I live here and do not know how other nations are approaching these conversations. Yet, I can still see a small shift in energy in our society. While I do not want to dismiss the medical profession and advantages of social distancing, I am glad that conversations about how social distancing is affecting our mental health is becoming more visible.  In general, people are more afraid to discuss their mental health than their physical health, but the ability to discuss our mental health is going to be one of our greatest weapons in bringing people together during this time of war. 

            While we are just now starting to look at that question in the context of mental health, I barely see that question being answered through the context of spirituality. If spirituality cannot help us through anxiety, depression and feeling a loss of control in our life, then I do not know what can help us? Not everyone has to be a spiritual person, but how can we deny that coming to stand in the darkness as brothers and sisters of Earth is a spiritual act? The reason I am writing this blog is to help create a safe space for people to reflect and dialogue on that question (even if it only reaches 10 people). I wonder if the reason people have not discussed the Corona in that context is because there is a spiritual dryness in America?

            It’s hard not to criticize my home country, but in many ways America needs a facelift. America does not need to be great, but it needs to be humble. America forgot how to be humble, forgot how to be kind. More importantly, the people in America have forgotten how to faithfully live out their personal values. They do not have to identify with a particular faith in order to faithfully live out their values, but they do need to have a sense of integrity in order to do so. These are values that help a person realize what it means to be human; values such as compassion, selflessness, mercy, creativity, generosity, vulnerability and honesty.

            Not everyone in America has lost a sense of their values; I know a lot of people in America that faithfully live out their values. Unfortunately their compassion for others is often overlooked because they are seen as gentle and meek.  But the meek shall inherent the Earth and one day we will recognize the importance of our values. One day we will recognize that the need to have integrity is greater than the need to have power. Unfortunately, I realize that people have a lot of introspective work to do in order to get there because otherwise we wouldn’t elect people who think it is right to put children in cages against their will.

            What does it say about America’s values if we elect people who exert their power by taking away the power and autonomy of others? What does it say about humanity if humans feel the need to dehumanize others? I don’t want to live in that type of world. I do acknowledge that a lot of these questions coincide with politics, but I don’t want to write about politics on my blog because I still have a lot of political trauma. I do recognize that people are looking at these questions through a political perspective, but are they also looking at them through a self-awareness perspective?

            Are people spiritually suffering because they are afraid to rediscover their values? Maybe its because I’m an old soul, but I don't understand how people can connect to anything if they cannot connect to themselves (is that why Bumble is so popular?) I am not grateful for the COVID-19, but where I find a sense of goodness is that there is an invitation to reexamine our values during this time of disorder. 

            For example, before the outbreak and fear, I was actually thinking to myself how I am ashamed of how individualistic America is. I value my individual creativity as an artist, but it is draining how individualistic and competitive America is. I miss the sense of community that a lot of other places in this world still seem value. We don't have to be as community oriented as some of those other places, but whatever ever happened to the idea of saying hi to neighbors from our front porch. Unfortunately, I live in a society where it takes an individual to raise a child and not a village. 

            I don't want to romanticize other countries and ignore my American heritage, but I wish my country could understand how lonely and in need of community we actually are. It appears that in the media we are just now (hopefully) starting to recognize how important connection is now that we are limited to it do to social distancing. We have taken connection and community for granted now that we are put in a position where we have to be intentional about our socializing. For me, it is draining how people are complaining about limiting their social connection, yet for several years ignored the fact that they were not intentional about forming social connection. Of course it is hard not to blame others because as an American we are put in positions and systems where it is impossible to not have this mentality. 

            I cannot blame others for being placed in a society where individualism is valued more than community. I am in the same position and to be honest, neither value is wrong. It is only harmful when we only live in the extreme ends of one of those values. It can be exhausting finding the balance between the two because a lot of the times I am not presented with the option to find the balance. The effect of the Coronavirus has caused me to reexamine what community means to me. My hope is that many other people are reexamining what community means to them. A spiritual change is among us, and this change can only occur if we have the courage to reexamine our values in order to intentionally live into them. 

            Granted, not everyone is going to introspect of their values as an outcome from everything that is happening. Being in community is always scary because of the element of vulnerability. Community is apart of human nature, but so is self-preservation. Those two are always at war with each other for human instinct. My hope for humanity is that once the Coronavirus passes, a spiritual revelation of rediscovering and honoring our value of community will occur.  Community can be experienced in many ways, but being the best version of ourselves can only be experienced in one way-to authentically live out our own personal values.