The World Upended

Do you not see how necessary a World of Pains and troubles is to school an Intelligence and make it a Soul?

John Keats, letter to George and Georgianna Keats, April 21, 1819

What might be lost if we avoid our pain and suffering?

Currently we are living under the weight of a global crisis. The coronavirus has swept in and taken possession of our land. And we watch others respond.

I saw a family respond with creativity and hope while their 80 year old father was isolated in an ICU - far from them physically, cared for and ultimately healed by the grace of God and the competency and care of his medical team. In spite of the crunch the nurses were under, they helped the family communicate. They held up the screen that allowed him to see his family send him messages of love; they taped the love letters to his wall.

And after the crisis was averted, it was his wife I loved the most. She kept making amends for what they had not known. You see, they had been in Florida and returned home to Virginia upon the advice of physicians. Symptom-free, they drove carefully up the highway and assumed they were returning to the safety of their retirement community. In the process, they exposed 288 people to the virus. And they are extremely sorry.

They did the best they could. They followed the guidelines of late February. They suffered a great trauma of their own but still found space to worry about their own wrongdoing - even though no one could blame them for what they did not know. They did not shy away from their suffering or the opportunity to serve as a cautionary tale as they confessed their own mistakes.

This is the kind of humility and willingness we need right now - and those who learn how to listen well, love large, and admit their mistakes are the kind of courageous people who will help us all not only survive, but thrive during this pandemic. Our skill sets matter.