January 14, 2022
Let’s Make It Work
Evergreen as we move through the weeks of this difficult winter.
“And of course it’s not the best, but I’ve been doing my best to learn from this time, to resist the way my own instincts are drawn toward certainty, rules, and constraints, even though that’s not really how the world goes. Last fall as families were making the call between in-person schooling and virtual learning, it was fascinating me that while we spend a lot of time posturing about there never being one right choice in regards to parenting, this really was one of those rare circumstances in which this was actually true. To the point where it really didn’t matter much what side you came out on, because nobody was sure of which was the right one, and all of us were just doing the best we could with the information that we had.
I have found it fascinating for there not to really be rules, for safety to be quantifiable. All of using the tools we have at our disposal to mitigate risk, to take those chances which are worthwhile for us to take. 18 months in, we know enough that this is finally getting to the point of being less frightening than genuinely interesting, license for each of us as individuals to think about what’s right for us. To be thoughtful and deliberate in our choices, and they don’t have to be the same as everyone else’s, and that’s really okay.”
I am trying to be openhearted, trying to operate from a place of understanding in regards to where other people are coming from. I am trouble by the reflexive thinking that’s always looking for someone to blame—other people, our leaders, failed systems, etc. But pitting blame doesn’t help. It isn’t even really real, because a virus is a formidable foe (I hope we have a new government in Ontario in June, but even if we had a different government now, all these things would still be a challenge) and it’s going to find the weakest part of any system, even those systems that are built on strength.
Which is not to say that our systems are robust by any means. But name me a system that is? I have doubts about the perfectibility of anything built by human beings, because imperfection is our very essence. (Speak for yourself, you say. Oh, but I am!)
All of us such flawed, fallible, fearful beings. And yet—we’re all we have.
