Wednesday, August 14, 2024

The Next Feather

(Following is an excerpt from an essay I wrote three years ago, just as we were pulling out from under the pandemic.)

"Yeah well, everyone here has got problems. Yours just may work out." -- Rick (Casablanca)

***

Some don't realize it yet, but this is one of those moments to savor. There has not been a time quite like this one previously in most of our lifetimes.

I only say most because I suspect there are a handful of 100-year-olds out there who know what I'm talking about.

The present moment is filled with romantic intrigue. We've all just stepped out of the shadows and are blinking at how bright the sun is. The tension is because we may well be headed back into the shadows all too soon.

So we've got to get on with it while we can.

Covid-19 was the longest night we've ever been through, with the exception of those who live too near the arctic circle. It also was a divisive night when it could and should have been unifying.

If we hadn't fought over it so pointlessly we would have seen it as a precious chance to grasp that all of us, and I mean allof us, were in a fight for our lives against a common enemy. That the enemy was a virus too small for the naked eye made the fight all the more intense.

The only thing I can compare this with is my imagination of that brief window of time when World War II had started in some places but not in all. Everybody knew what was coming but it wasn't here quite yet so millions of people suddenly had life-or-death decisions to make.

Should I stay or should I go? Huge migrations occurred all over the world. Families were split up, never to reunite. Couples who had reached the tipping point of love had to decide on the spot how they really felt about each other. There might not be another chance.

Of course love is the biggest of risk of all, so the stakes could not have been higher. My own parents married at that very point in history. I’m a child of their union.

***

Many of those I talk to are in transition right now and they feel a measure of urgency that is easy to comprehend.  During the pandemic it was difficult if not impossible to make big changes in their lives and that makes this time especially intense.

That's good news for me, I suppose, because I've always loved helping people when they are in transition. Not that being settled doesn't have its selling points -- you know which key opens your door, you know how the seatbelt in your car works, you know what's for breakfast and who that person next to you is.

By contrast, when you strike out for something new, you don't yet know any of those kinds of things. You may go someplace you've never been before, find yourself speaking a new language, eating food you'd swore you'd never try, wear a uniform you didn't know you'd like, hold tight to somebody you barely even knew existed until one special night not long ago.

Whether things like this happen or not, at times like these it just helps to call somebody who knows what it's like to be the next feather in the breeze.

One of my colleagues used to have as his mantra "change is good," and of course he wasn't the first to say it, just as I won't be the last.

Like all such truisms, you can't live by that philosophy in a literal sense because not all change is good for all people all of the time. Some changes are downright horrible.

But maintaining the status quo isn't always your best option either. 

You just have to figure out when to listen to that little whisper that this is your time to take off, even if you don't know which way the wind is blowing. 

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