Thursday, December 31, 2020

New Year's Eve 2020

 

Time for Reflection

“…Again, again we come and go,

changed, changing. Hands

join, unjoin in love and fear,

grief and joy. The circles turn,

each giving into each, into all…”

Wendell Berry (from Earth Prayers, p.286; Harper San Francisco, 1991)

          In the book, Earth Prayers, edited by Elizabeth Roberts and Elias Amidon, New Year’s Eve is listed as, “a time for reflection and renewal.” I cannot imagine that anyone on planet Earth is celebrating today with the pandemic at a record high, and hospitals maxed out. This year’s final day will need to be a time of reflection only. Looking back at 2020 will not be easy since we are all leaning forward where we believe we see a glimmer of light on the horizon. That light comes in the form of vaccines, shots in the arm of the most literal sort. Shots that bring hope of renewal for the new year.

          This year, just as every other, the cycles turn. This has been the darkest, loneliest winter of our lives for many people around the world, especially those in nursing homes, or who live alone. We began by reveling in having unfettered time on our hands and no demands from the outside world. We believed it was temporary, and that we could use the time to bond with our loved ones, do all those house projects that had been on hold, clean out the closets and sort out the basement. But as months have added up to a year, we have grown anxious and irritable, worried about jobs and money, and bored with being at home. Many of us have thrown caution to the wind and gone on with our lives, only to be infected with a virus that is increasingly virulent and utterly impersonal. Too many of us have died. Finally, a breakthrough in the form of shots has come, and too many of us are declining to be vaccinated. (Imagine a head-slap and the exclamation, “Oi!” here.)

          I cannot fathom what, after a year of house arrest, could possibly be the motivation for declining a life-saving vaccine—our only real hope for getting back to some semblance of normalcy. I would like to say that I respect your right to choose, but that would be a lie. For the human population on this planet to be safe, we need to vaccinate every single healthy person, so “individual rights” do not compute here. This is about “collective obligation.” For once in our lives, we need to put others first. Our priority must be the common good.

          In America, we should view the new year as an opportunity to stop feeling that we have special status in the world, that the humanity-rules do not apply to us. Instead, we could simply live up to our motto, “E pluribus Unum;” out of many, one. We can do our part to further the lives of every human being who exists on this planet by the simple act of rolling up our sleeves and getting vaccinated. This is THE act of renewal for this year; the only thing we should be celebrating tonight. I look forward to high hilarity at the end of 2021, because I definitely want to check out all your dance moves. But first, we must ensure that as many of us as possible live to see it. Please, get your vaccination as soon as you can, and enter this new year with real hope for the future.

                                                  In the Spirit,

                                                  Jane