This Too Shall Pass
The comforting words — This Too Shall Pass — ring hollow for so many Americans who have been living on the margins and are now being pushed into the abyss. We hear them echo out of the mouths of national leaders whose Godly worship of the stock markets reduces our collective humanity into dollars and (non)sense. With those four words, they reveal their failure to grasp the global mental, physical and spiritual death of an entire society.
What a “Titanic” moment, for us who are still employed in “non-essential” jobs. We sit at home with our computers, sharing memes and pretending to work (playing the violin) while the poor (store clerks, hospital cleaning crews, sanitation workers, nursing home and daycare workers), alongside countless underwaged workers, risk their lives as they try to save us all.
In this moment of crisis, we are thankful for them. Yet as we celebrate their heroism with a friendly smile or an extra tip, we never have to reckon with our collective and direct contribution to their financial demise. Make no mistake: We (the collective we) have caused this. We have caused it with our failure to demand a basic quality of life for all — including a livable wage, health coverage for all and affordable housing — in the richest country in the world. We have caused it by insisting on our delusional shared belief system called meritocracy, and on the blind mythology of “I’m so privileged or “blessed.” These unquestioning systems dim any awakening to, much less acknowledgement of, our culpability and of our individual responsibility to fight for — no demand, no ensure — that every living being has access to health, housing and food.
So, in these times of self-isolation, may we find transformational ways to show our thanks. May we show thanks by demanding more of ourselves and more of our government and our societal systems to ensure true economic and social justice for all. For if “this moment is going to pass,” it will require a radical shift in our capitalist society that today situates profit over the life. It will mandate that systems reckon with the reality that ALL LIVES Matter, not as a slogan or cynical mantra to deny the systemic construct of racism, rather, a deep and authentic awareness of our interdependence — the kind we glimpse today when we grapple with who among us remains “essential.”
For if All Lives Matter, we must fervently fight for more than mere pennies, tips and an occasional smile for the essential workers toiling in the machine room of the Titanic as we fiddle through our Zoom calls and food deliveries. If we don’t, these critical passing moments will forever ring hollow, not only for those working to save us, but for all of humanity. #navigateCouRage.
Sincerely,
Robin