Hello in There: a Reflection

Here’s where we were a year ago:

As I write this the “USNS Comfort” is making its way up the Hudson River to dock in New York City. This is a time when our swords have been beaten into pruning hooks– instruments for trimming back, nurturing and growth. For this one moment, we are fighting a war not against others, but against ourselves.

This is a time when we get together by being alone, when we sing in isolation with hundreds of people — virtually. There is some happiness in here. We continue to sing, because we are in a sort of captivity and it is all we can do. The ancient Jews sang in Babylon, because it was the only thing to bring them joy. We miss our choirs and we miss going to concerts.

Some are working 14-hour shifts on the front line to help and to save lives. Those of us who are not doctors, or nurses, or first responders applaud them the same way we applauded the 9/11 workers coming back from Ground Zero. They are our heroes. And we have other heroes providing us all our “essential services” while we isolate.

You will find the rest of us holed up in our apartments, our houses or in shelters. We cannot embrace each other but we do not need to forget each other. This is a time that touches each and everyone of us. Hello in there. Let’s do our best to live and love now. Let’s do our best to create a new way of living. The process of being vaccinated limps along and some are going to beaches and clubs while others wait in line.

Hello in there again. We love you, John Prine and all who have suffered and died in this past year– old and young.