While Standing (6 Feet Apart) on One Leg
March 22, 2020
This is the end of week 2 of the pandemic. We have been told to stay at home, keep our children out of school, not go to work, and so forth. Trying out new technology has had it challenges but seems that we have all pretty much adjusted pretty well.
Many of our routines have undergone a radical change. I was speaking with my Teen Academy students today and I was so saddened by their disappointment since some of them will not be able to go their proms, visit their colleges, see their friends and several other things they were all looking forward to. It occurred to me that the best thing we can give our children – beside shelter and safety – is encouragement that relatively soon this will all be a bad memory. But the lessons they have learned so far! How much they take for granted. How the most mundane things remain unseen until they don’t have them. One of the students event quoted Joni Mitchell: ‘You don’t know what you’ve go till its gone.’ Very insightful and very true.
There is some amazing creativity going on, as well. I am delighted that so many people can still laugh in the midst of all this. I am amazed at how young computer-savvy people are creating apps and writing code for websites that connect people. And some of the prose and poetry coming out now is astonishing. And, watching religious leaders of all faiths tending to the needs and challenges of their congregation in so many ways is enlightening. (I think entirely new Tractates of the Talmud should be called Tractate Zoom, Tractate Mevo, Tractate Sefer Panim B’chaiim – Facebook Live!)
In a word, we are all doing what humans do in times like this: we are adapting.
But in all this adaptation, let’s remember something really important. Everyone on the other end of your call, your text, your pastoral request, your congregant, the family you serve, the mayor of your town – all of them – are human. They are just as apprehensive and prone to mistakes and oversights as you are. Everyone is doing their best. That is why the Hebrew word of the day is…..savlanute – patience.
Let’s all be sure to take that word with us wherever we go and remember it whatever we do.
