You should be uncomfortable
How are you feeling…? A little uncomfortable…?
We should be. We are experiencing incredible change, like no other, in all aspects of our lives right now. We are in the middle of a global pandemic and a social change movement at the same time.
The pandemic has changed we way we work, the way we live, the way we interact with loved ones and with strangers, it has changed the way we shop and eat, the way we travel and experience the outdoors.
For a while it seemed like the world went quiet as we all went inside. I was thinking that the Pandemic was the equalizer, it was the shared experience, the common thread we were all experiencing and it was impacting everyone, everywhere. Whether you were rich or poor, famous or not, regardless of country, race or religion we were all impacted. Granted, those with “means”, those that “have” are experiencing it very differently than those that do not, but we are all experiencing an unwanted interruption. For weeks since March every night on the news the entire news cast was about COVID, there was no other news. And then George Floyd was murdered.
George Floyd was brutally and senselessly murdered by police. He was not the first black person to be murdered by police, but his death awoke an anger that was raging below the surface and his killing brought it to the shallows. Around the world there were protests and marches. The images on TV now are not just of COVID but of people of every race and religion walking together wearing medical masks – the images are truly amazing. People are getting together to fight for something bigger than themselves, something so important that even a global pandemic will not allow it to be hushed.
I believe that it is because we are in the middle of this great change caused by the pandemic that we are able to all come together and share our beliefs that Black Lives DO Matter. We are already disrupted from our normal routines. There is no status quo to block our view so we are able to see what could be, what should be. Because we are all feeling displaced we can focus on the one thing that makes sense, we can focus on the change that matters.
The pandemic rattled the status quo and we know it has changed things forever. The positive in this… is that it will change things forever. We have a great offer in front of us right now and we need to accept it, the way we were doing things does not work and we cannot go back. There is no status quo anymore so we need to let go of the wrong-workings of the past and not insist on returning to the safety of what we knew – because truly it wasn’t safe for a lot of us and we can no longer accept it as truth. We have a chance now to write a new script, to write a new script for how we will treat each other with respect and compassion, write a new script where we each seek to understand and learn, write a new script where Black Lives Matter is the norm.
The time is NOW.
How are you feeling…?
