Age of Uncertainty

As I write this, I’m sitting on my deck with the sun shining and birds singing in a gentle breeze. We are feeling like prisoners in our homes, working from home, kids doing lessons on line. It helps to get outside. Everyone is trying to find ways to distract and occupy themselves so we don’t drive each other crazy in this time like no other. People are scared and worried their lives will never return to normal. There are all kinds of stories of people helping neighbors, and making masks and bringing food to the front line warriors, the doctors, nurses and other first responders who are risking their lives to save others. There are thousands of videos on line of people sharing stories and doing things to make us laugh, and even cry as we struggle through the uncertainty. Musicians are steaming live to soothe our souls. Watching the news can get overwhelming. The numbers get worse every day. The lack of national leadership has just added to the chaos and confusion.

This has forced us to change our basic interpersonal relationships. We can’t go to work. We can’t visit family or friends. Grown children can’t visit their parents. Kids can’t visit their grandparents. We have to visit nursing homes by touching hands through the glass. It’s all counterintuitive to how we want to act in a crisis. We want to come together  and fight side by side. We want to be united. That’s where we gain strength and comfort to fight the common enemy. Even when we do venture out for food, there is a nervous feeling walking around other shoppers. Trying to get in and out the store quickly. Suspicious of people who aren’t wearing gloves or not using the hand sanitizer at the entrance. Wondering who else may have touched that can of soup you just bought. I’ve noticed there are more people out walking around our neighborhood than normal. The sun brings them out. People say hello as they walk past making sure they maintain the universal six feet of separation rule.

In past crises, we could see the enemy. Pearl Harbor and 9/11 we could see and feel the enemy and we all knew what we had to do. We did wonder, “How could this happen?” “How come we didn’t see this coming?” “Why weren’t we prepared?” But we got up off the deck and pulled together and fought back. We are asking the same questions today about this enemy we can now clearly see. There is plenty of evidence that the people in charge missed the early dangerous warning signs and then tried to wish away the problem. They will be judged by history and at the polls. We don’t know when we will get a handle on this. Medical and financial experts are all trying to give us answers, a few months, six months, a year, Easter? They all assure us that we will get through it and come out on the other side. It will be painful and even deadly. The future is very difficult to predict. When Winston Churchill became Prime Minister of Great Britain in May, 1940, the future of his country was in grave danger. Many doubted it could survive a possible German invasion. But he never gave up. He would not surrender. He said, “It is always wise to look ahead, but difficult to see further than you can see.” Good advice in this age of uncertainty.”