The Pandemic and Political Divisions: From Tragedy to a New Life

 During 2020, I have watched many people manifest amazing changes during this pandemic and extreme political division: transformation and rebirth; life with decreased anxiety, more calm, less stress. During the destruction and death of so many structures, some people have found new ways to live healthier lives.

Our species continually evolves, as we learn more about what works for us and what doesn't. Living through one of the worst years in U.S. history, we have found ourselves to be more capable, compassionate and caring about the community rather than just about ourselves. 

I see some goodness resulting from tragic divisions between families, between people of color and white people, between Democrats and Republicans.  Even while we live with the grief and loss of loved ones we couldn't visit in hospitals before their deaths, something wonderful is happening. We are changing.

Unlike my Marine pilot father in WWII and the Korean War, or those who have experienced slavery or incarceration, I view the last 4 years of Trump’s administration and this virus as both the worst times of my life, along with some of the best.

When so many parts of life have shut down, I witness people finding new ways to gather, online, by phone, and outdoors. More pets have been adopted. After much loneliness and lack of hugging, so many people have found new ways to nurture each other and their communities, decreasing danger and violence. Still, we have also observed the violence that continues between police and black and brown people, between neighbors and families, and between the haves and have nots.

People are searching for something that they can believe in and trust. We who survive are beginning life anew. We can learn to hold onto this newfound peacefulness and calm, instead of jumping rapidly back into the rat race. We have had to step back and evaluate our lives, and have found that some of what we do harms us more than helps us.

We can now explore and create different ways to handle our work, our communications, our gatherings, and decrease our own violence toward ourselves and each other.

Many of us grew up believing that we were not good enough and that we should always strive to do better, not appreciating what we can do.  As children we believed (because of our child brains) that what happened around us was connected directly to us, our feelings, behaviors, or thoughts. When bad things happened, we thought we were bad. Only as adults can we learn how damaging those beliefs have been for us.

This year, many people have lost their incomes, their homes, and their lives to this horrible disease during enormous political strife that continues today no matter who is president. When will we wake up from this stuck place, living like we always have?  When can we start becoming more creative and effective at living life? Let’s harness the energy that is usually spent on conflicts and direct it toward co-creating a new and better world.