COULD IT BE that I’m in a dancing mood these days as the pandemic restrictions and responsibilities lessen and life takes on a more normal feeling and things open up to give us back some of our freedoms? Since it is July, I also am reminded of the purpose of the 4th of July, a time to remember what it means to live in a country known for its respect for freedom and for the heavy price some of our people have paid to keep us free. I’m not writing about those who think wearing a mask during a health crisis is infringing on their freedom; I’m writing about those who truly see freedom as an integral part of the democracy that was created many years ago with a spirit that included everyone so much so that we say, “All people are created equal” (italics mine).
It seems to me that it will be years before we fully appreciate what the pandemic has taught us about many things, including what freedom really means in our lives. I already see differences in what people will choose to do in regard to education, religious practices, food choices, travel, and entertainment to name just a few institutions that have been affected by the pandemic.
Students, parents, and teachers now know what massive online education looks like, and some of it worked and some of it didn’t. The freedom experienced away from the traditional education system taught us something about a new way of learning. Will we be free to solve the challenges, or will we go back to the way things were before 2020? What will happen to the churches, temples, mosques, and other sacred places when their members now realize that there are other ways of experiencing the holy, the sacred, and new ways to worship? Will restaurants ever make it back to pre-pandemic days, or have parents begun to cook and families learned to eat together at home again? Will visiting family, friends, and places in other parts of the country and the world fill the roads, seas, and skies all year round again? What will the new forms of entertainment be now that we’ve experienced so much Zoom, TV, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter? The enthusiasm evident for the return of sports events, movies in real theaters, plays on Broadway as well as local productions, and people enjoying the great outdoors in a variety of ways already shows me how much we missed and hopefully now appreciate the many freedoms we do have.
Through it all, what happened before the pandemic and as it seems to be winding down, I am reminded of a story I recently read told by Rabbi Wayne Dosick in his book, Radical Loving, about a Native American tribe known for its great ability to bring rain through its prayerful and joyful rain dances. Whenever they danced it seemed to always rain. Other tribes danced but it did not rain so they asked the Chief why his tribe was so successful. He simply replied, “We just keep dancing until it rains.”
I would suggest if you have any concerns about what will happen after the “rains” of the pandemic, that you just keep dancing, keep enjoying the freedoms we do have, and be grateful for everything.
Sister Mary Thill is a Sylvania Franciscan Sister. She can be reached at mthill@sistersosf.org.
Wealth among traditional people is measured
by having enough to give away.
Hoarding the gift, we become constipated with wealth,
bloated with possessions, too heavy to join the dance...
The moral covenant of reciprocity calls us
to honor our responsibilities for all we have been given,
for all that we have taken.
It’s our turn now, long overdue.
…Whatever our gift, we are called to give it
and to dance for the renewal of the world.
+ Robin Wall Kimmerer, botanist and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation
