Finally, Covid

My first go-round.

It’s always such a gift to be reminded of life’s physical fragility, which in some ways is a rarity for me, man of steel that I pretend to be.  Yet I am also, or certainly aspire to be, ready to say farewell at any moment.  I cannot imagine too many things more limiting than resistance to losing my physical being, since perhaps the most noteworthy manifestation of the universe’s playful nature is the reality that we don’t die.

TWO DAYS LATER:

I don’t think I’ve blown my nose this much in my entire life.

Feeling as physically rotten as I do and realizing this is nothing compared to what so many have felt on their way to death from Covid, or even just making their way with it with a heck of a lot less resilient body than mine, ignites my compassion for all of us who, in one way or another, have been visited by this specter.  

Covid’s purpose, like that of every other response to metaphysical disharmony, is the reminder to humankind of the price always to be paid by ignorance in its countless forms—greed, unforgiveness, self-righteousness, superiority and inferiority among a list that trails to infinity, fueled as it is by the granddaddy of erroneous beliefs: that the world out there is responsible for how we feel.

We, the human family, at this youthful stage of our evolution, are far removed from celebrating our inevitable realization that the most important characteristic of humanity is oneness.  Nothing meaningful separates us.  Everything meaningful unites us.  Differences are an illusion.

Fortunately, the universe operates with mathematical precision to awaken us, eventually, from all misperception.  Seemingly grotesque events, like Covid and mass shootings and the Trump phenomenon and on and on and on are the natural response of an unconditionally loving universe designed to provide whatever the minimum intensity of encouragement we need to pay meaningful attention to the choices we’re making, the actions we’re taking—based on the timeless principle that how we define our world actually creates our world.  

When we fail to pay attention, the universe lovingly ratchets up the heat to the next minimum level.  Sometimes that level reaches catastrophic proportions in response to our seemingly genetic denial that all is sacred.

Ironically, as we mature, even Trump will become a fabulous teacher long after he’s left town, for the biggest lesson of Trump is that he’s not responsible for how a single person feels about him.  Like everyone else on earth, he only shows us ourselves.

Covid may be the most important world event in my lifetime.  Hardly anyone is unaffected by it.  It influences, planet-wide, virtually every aspect of humanity.  It encourages a re-assessment of every manifestation of worldly world living: the choices we’re making, why we’re making them, and the impact of those choices on ourselves and others.  How well we’re responding to this encouragement will be revealed, but the universe is offering it for the simple reason we need it.  I know it can seem impossible to even fathom, but someday, down the evolutionary highway, we’ll recognize that everything is a gift, and the business of life is discovering how come.

How many times have I played this theme on these pages?—lots, to be sure, a fact that reflects the incomparable value of practice, practice, practice.  What it takes to get to Carnegie Hall is no different than what it takes to grow a peaceful heart.  There’s not a moment that can’t be helpful.