Lessons of the Pandemic

Questions and Prayers

“It may be that when we no longer know…which way to go we have begun our real journey. The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The stream impeded is the one that sings.”

Wendell Berry

          I find in times of trouble, when I don’t know what to think, much less what to say, I turn to the elders for wisdom. Wendell Berry is one of them. His ideas appeal to me because they match my own values, and I am comfortable and secure with his guidance. The problem I encounter is knowing when to stop, because I love everything he’s written, and find myself scribbling down every quote I can find and then struggling to choose one.

          Wendell Berry is a man of the land, of the woods, and steams, and trees and creatures. He is a skeptic when it comes to embracing government policy and seems to believe that it often works against us instead of for us. He says, for instance, “People are fed by the food industry, which pays no attention to health, and are treated by the health industry, which pays no attention to food.”

          Like his protagonist, Jayber Crow, he finds peace in solitude, and he finds answers by immersing himself in the natural world. He writes, “We don’t have a right to ask whether we’re going to succeed or not. The only question we have a right to ask is what’s the right thing to do? What does the earth require of us if we want to continue to live on it?” These are the questions I hope we are all asking—or at least enough of us to change the conversation—while we’re waiting to resume the insanity we call “normal.”

          What is the right thing to do? What does the earth require of us if we want to continue to live on it? What do I want my “new normal” to look like? What needs to be transformed in me to live my values? Don’t expect quick answers; it’s enough to hold the questions in your consciousness—and in your prayers. “You can’t know where life will take you, but you can commit to a direction.” (Wendell Berry)

                                                  In the Spirit,

                                                  Jane