Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

"I get the strong desire to return to normal life now. I, too, want so badly to go out and do something fun & normal.

"But every spiritual tradition teaches about mastering desire for a reason. What you want & what you need-or others need of you-aren't always the same thing.

"Often it's about working to be more aligned with divine service, or towards alleviating suffering.

"Now, it is both of those things, but in the highest-stakes, most literal way: if you give in to your desire to pretend we are in a post-COVID world, people will die.

"Our desires are natural and understandable. We can have compassion for them. We can be empathetic to the parts of us that feel like, my goodness, these last few months have been long and hard and maybe lonely and exhausting and we Just. Want. Some. Respite.

[...]

"But the stakes are too high to let that part be in the driver's seat now.

[...]

"Rightwing slogan notwithstanding, this disease really doesn't care about your feelings.

"And a rush to return to 'normal' (either because your state is reopening some or just because it's summer now and you wanna) is going to be a death sentence for a lot of people. [..]"

-- Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg, 2020-05-26. I engourage everyone to go read the whole thing on Facebook or on Twitter, because it's the kind of writing where "just quoting the important bits" would mean taking almost the entire thing. There are additional important bits I left behind. Go look.

Oh, and I wish y'all a meaningful Memorial Day.