During COVID-10 Confinement: by Allan Baker

In this time of COVID confinement

when we are all in this together

as children of a loving God;

we are showing each other

 that the power of love

is everywhere on Planet Earth.

Love is pervasive, and invasive.

Love is strong, patient, and kind;

not insisting on its own way

but accepting that there are many pathways through life.

So, as we long to return to “normal”

we are learning to give, and to receive;

sharing love and kindness; friendship and connection,

and learning to use these life-giving gifts

to affirm the goodness of people, and of creation.

May it continue to be so.

Toward a More Caring Society: Practicing Empathy During a Pandemic

 

by: Amanda Harvey-Sánchez

In a society plagued by the logic of neoliberalism, which encourages a turn towards individual interests and an “every person for themselves” mentality, acts of empathy and collective action may seem rare. But mutual aid also demonstrates how collective interests and a capacity for empathy have not entirely disappeared, and we may still have an opportunity to build upon these promising actions.

More on empathy at: https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/toward-a-more-caring-society-practicing-empathy-during-a-pandemic

 

 

Rejecting the death instinct in a pandemic age:

by Matthew Behrens, April 21, 2020

Matthew Behrens has shared his thoughts on what we choose to happen as we “return to normal” after COVID-19. He begins by writing that:

“The ongoing pandemic epoch has exposed a clear duality marked both by increasingly obvious and blatant inequalities, hypocrisies and systemic failures as well as beautiful, loving and creative responses in the form of mutual aid communities and direct action to save lives.

What happens when — or if — this epoch comes to an end is anybody’s guess, but there are clearly two paths forward, with a thankfully growing consciousness developed long before COVID-19 that our present path is one leading directly to disaster. Indeed, the 24-hour news cycle dominated by masked faces, hospital images and infection charts has almost obliterated from memory everything from January’s apocalyptic Australian brush fire scenes that served as yet one more warning about planetary peril to the grotesque armed invasion of Wet’suwet’en territory by paramilitary RCMP units.”

 

Which path will we, individually and as a society, choose to follow? The whole of Matthew’s article can be found at:

https://rabble.ca/columnists/2020/04/rejecting-death-instinct-pandemic-age

 

 

 

Do we really want to return to “normal” as the COVID-19 pandemic subsides? Is a return to “normal” in the best interest of humanity, or Planet Earth?

Photo: Allan Baker – Lake Ontario beach at Morningside Creek

Yes, there’s plenty about this time of COVID confinement that I do not enjoy, and in my heart I wish that “social distancing” were over with, for example. However, what was “normal” before this time? Was it all-good? What would we have changed about life to make it richer and more meaning-full for ourselves and people in our communities?

Thanks to Prof. Dennis Bartels, I have set up a small chart of SOME of the differences that we are currently (April 2020) experiencing:

Before COVID -19                                             During COVID-19

Concern for gov’t DEBT                              No limits on gov’t spending

Opposition to carbon tax                           Environmental issues fade

Housing the homeless is an                      People without homes are being housed in hotels,

Intractable problem, cannot                    new shelters set up.

be solved, just tolerated                           Concern that “they” may infect “the rest of us”

Underfunding of daycare                         Gov’t establishes FREE daycare

                                                                          for children of “Essential” folks

As André Picard, the health reporter for Toronto’s Globe & Mail says: “The big unknown question is, are we going to learn lessons from this? Or are we just going to go back to what we did before? ….I think there’s some real opportunities here to do things differently. I hope the bright side of this is that we really do take advantage of this crisis to do bold things and not just go back to the safe, not very effective way of doing health and social services.”

 What we are seeing during this pandemic are acts of kindness, and love for other people who are all part of our human family.

I’ll conclude with a quote from Bill McKibben, who wrote this in the May, 2020 edition of Sojourners Magazine: “The day will come when we can easily return to church, to the store, to the hairdresser – for that we will be able to thank the scientists, and the brave doctors and nurses, who did what they had to do during this emergency. But their courage will have been wasted if nothing deeper changes in how we treat one another and the planet.”

Let’s not “waste” this opportunity.

Celebrating 50 years of a vision.

 

David Suzuki asks:

When you pause to reflect on what’s truly essential and meaningful for you to thrive, what comes to mind?

One possible response comes from Bill Mckibbin. In Sojourner’s Magazine ( www.sojo.net) Bill wrote:

“The day will come when we can easily return to church, to the store, to the hairdresser – for that we will be able to thank the scientists, and the brave doctors and nurses, who did what they have to do during this emergency. But their courage will have been wasted if nothing deeper changes in how we treat one another and the planet.”

Suzuki’s thoughtful column concludes with this statement:

“Now, many politicians are ascribing war language to the pandemic response. But what will we do when this “war” is over? Will we allow an old equation to continue to guide us, or could we choose to come together to define a new purpose?”

To read the whole column go to:

https://davidsuzuki.org/story/economics-should-reflect-what-really-matters/