Many things have happened in that time. We moved. We rescued pets and let other ones go. I've said hello and then goodbye to many students. I've had a lot of challenges and a lot of celebrations. I could have written about any of them...and may, still.
But it was none of those things that got me to come back, as it were. It is a combination of three things.
The first is a student-turned-friend who has their own blog. Yesterday, they said to me, "Never stop writing!" and it struck a chord.
The second is an invitation I am shortly going to be sending out to all the students who have chosen Honors Studies or who are in an Honors class this semester - an invitation to journal their experiences during the third reason. It seems odd to invite others to do something that I am not doing myself...so I am going to do a version of it.
The third reason, as you might imagine, is the pandemic.
There are so many things I could talk about and probably will as the more-uncertain-than-ever future unfolds. We don't know how long we will be asked to shelter in place. We don't know how many will grow sick, how many we will lose. We took too long to mobilize, but now that we finally are, things are moving so quickly. I'm grieving, it is true, but that's not what I want to talk about here. I'm angry and sad and uplifted all at once. I'm anxious and scared. But what I would rather talk about is something that the governor of New York said today. This is not about politics or how I see him now or in the past. But he said something that is really important that we all remember in times like these.
Except who am I kidding - there have not been times like these in my lifetime, in the lifetime of my parents. This is uncharted territory...but his words ring true nonetheless. In the face of the hoarding and the con artists, the ones spreading false information and the ones trying to capitalize off the lack of others - in the face of all of that, his words ring true.
Practice humanity, he said.
Practice kindness, practice compassion, practice gentility, practice patience.
We may not be able to greet others with a handshake or a hug. We may have to resort to greetings via technology or through a window... but we have the chance to make this easier on us all. We have the power to make things harder for our fellow humans or to make it easier.
Practice humanity.
We can't return to normal after this, because 'normal' is what got us here in the first place. But maybe, we can learn something from everything we are going through. The only way to get better is to practice.
Practice makes perfect.
Practice humanity.
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