While in self-isolation I look outside my window onto the placid street, I see parked cars with a strange calm in the air, it’s still yet loud with silence. Thoughts of my childhood and of the unknown come rushing to the forehead of my mind. I’m in the forest, 7 years old and lost, but not lost, rather misplaced in my little world. It’s a bizarre feeling of being right there and also right there, still looking out that window feeling like I’m getting lost in this place.
The silence is broken, attention toward a new window rises in my mind, eclipsing the lost boy in the forest and the quiet outside world. This window is filled with panic and chaos as some strangers warn about the end of the world while a marginal few attempt to remain calm. Facts and figures. Charts and diagrams. Percentages and maps. Controversies and contradictions. Some experts are saying to take the COVID-19 pandemic seriously like your life depends on it, yet others suggest that this will all blow over. Some places are opening their parts of the world to the public, yet other places are locking everything up so tight, that you might be afraid they forget where they left all the keys.
I’m reminded
of the first paragraph of Charles Dickens’ wonderful 1859 historical novel A
Tale of Two Cities, that tells about the contrasts and comparisons between
London and Paris during the French Revolution.
We’ve all read or heard this masterful opening at several points
throughout our lives.
“It was the best of times, it was the
worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was
the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light,
it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of
despair…, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were
all going direct the other way…”
There is
something so timeless about this passage that when I think of the current time
we are all in, a time of conflict, a time of chaos and despair, we are also in
a time of hope and a time of happiness.
Right now, we are in a time of extreme opposites, dividing, feeling like
we are a universe apart without any in-betweens.
In these
paradoxical times, is when we must find a middle ground and if we can’t, we
must create new neuro-pathways in our brains to make that bridge. We live in a technological age of enlightenment,
yet we still live in a Bronze Age era of darkness and tyranny. We live in a time of hope and a time of great
despair. We are at a turning point, we
are on the brink of a revolution, but will that revolution be the best of times
for us or the worst of times? In this
age of wisdom there is far too much foolishness downloading our time. Do we want our eyes to be wide open in the
light or our heads in the sands of darkness? Do we want our children to grow up with
freedom in a spring of hope or be left alone in a winter of despair? Do we want a world we can all share, or do we
want to go the other way....?
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