This article originally appeared on the blog of Heretic, the magazine of We Are Libertarians.
I saw this brief passage being shared around by some of my friends on social media today, and loved it. I haven’t been able to confirm an original source for it yet, but I wanted to share it still:
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.
(If you know who this should be attributed to, please let me know.)
I don’t want to distract from the seriousness of the COVID-19 pandemic and the suffering it has and will cause. And I certainly don’t want to be mischaracterized as thinking this pandemic is ultimately a good thing. But I also, on a personal level, want to to make the best of this situation as I can.
I think that’s the best any of us can hope to do, really.
