Closing out week 5. This is getting old. And also kind of familiar. Matt and I have gotten into a habit of walking after dinner while the kids clean up (!). It’s a really nice way to close out the day. Last night, as we walked (aside: it is still freezing in Boston, so I was wearing a parka and mittens, and yesterday morning I ran in the snow), Matt said something I haven’t been able to stop thinking about. “I don’t know that I believe in a greater power or God out there, but it’s kind of hard not to think in some ways this pandemic is something bigger than us saying STOP.” It was actually the college process conversations we’ve been having that caused him to have the thought, but we went on to talk about the environment, and the way we live in general.
It is my devout wish that we emerge from this dark and difficult time with some things readjusted. I really hope we do. I suspect that this time will cause a wholesale re-thinking for a lot of us. We live our lives at breakneck speed, which is wonderful in some ways and destructive in others. I’m still fleshing out this thought, but I admit I find the notion of some larger power controlling all of this reassuring in some deep, fundamental way.
It feels correlated to say this is the the spring that I’ve most intimately noticed the arrival of spring. Everything is bursting into bloom and the world is so beautiful right now (albeit cold). Obviously I am paying attention in a new way. There’s bittersweetness and irony in this beauty, too, but I’m trying to also just see the sheer joy in the raucous arrival of spring.
One more thing for your Friday viewing. I watched the Andrea Bocelli concert on Easter, rapt. My favorite part, of course, was when he closed with Amazing Grace. The photographs of empty cities – especially Paris, London, and New York (two cities I’ve been proud to call home, and a third that is a second home) – made me weep. I suggest everybody watch this. Then watch it again.
Happy Friday, all. How are you doing? I’m genuinely asking.
Oh, Lindsey, I love your writing, and I hope you will continue to write again about this topic. I am experiencing some confusing thoughts about this challenging time.
Lately, I have had some feelings about God or a higher power, perhaps a bit like Matt’s.
Amazing Grace was my favorite hymn for decades. Lately, I’m thinking am I really a “wretch?” I would like to think not. I don’t think it is any longer my favorite hymn.
I’m a physician, so I’m still going to work (obviously)— but without the kid activities, I’m driving so much less and using gas so much less, which has to be good for the air around here (I live near Disneyland, not far from LA, famous for the smog). It really is a different world.