Social Closeness
We all need each other. Physical distance need not blind us to this need. We are learning to stay close despite the challenges.
In the midst of the current pandemic and panic,
there is a term that I've grown very tired of:
social distance.
I understand the importance of PHYSICAL distance
in order to reduce the risks of contagion.
Social distance has to be a different matter,
at least in the way that I'm thinking of it.
To me, the term social distance
could imply emotional distance
between people,
or distance in terms of caring about each other.
That would mean caring about each other best
at a distance,
or it might mean not caring very much at all.
The reality is that we need a lot more caring
about each other.
Events all over the U.S.
- and in other parts of the world -
in the last couple of weeks
tell us clearly that we do not need
more social distance.
We need more social closeness.
We need more understanding among people
who may be very different from each other.
Physical distance has been difficult to achieve
as people have tried to express
their grief and their grievances
regarding the ways the larger society
has treated them and their families.
Physical distance is no less important
as it has become more difficult.
It may be that it's becoming even more important
as we try to move forward
into more opportunities to go out of our homes
and do more things that need to be done.
Part of the problem with physical distance
is that it is closely related to privileges
in our society and in many other societies.
Staying at home is simply not possible
for too many of our people.
Minorities and the poor
have borne the brunt of the pandemic
very nearly across the board,
not only in terms of the disease itself
and the lack of adequate medical care,
but also in terms of their over-representation
in the jobs that have been designated
as essential.
As essential workers,
their exposure to the dangers of contagion
have been greatly increased.
Not all essential workers are underprivileged,
but many of them are.
As we depend on them,
so it is up to us to protect them
We all will have to work together
to achieve a balance
between physical distance to protect us
and social closeness to enable us
to care about each other in effective ways.
Caring about each other
is rapidly becoming an important survival skill.
A theme banner
for the Anglican diocese of Niagara
in Ontario, Canada
for this Pride week
carried the caption, "Fiercely Loved."
We all need to know and feel
that we are fiercely loved.
Fierce love
on a personal level
and on a social level
implies much more closeness than distance.
The closeness is as much a moral matter
as it is an emotional matter,
maybe even more so.
Our sense of caring for each other
is a powerful force in our society
as well as our families.
It is one of the ways that our congregation
has become a beloved community for us.
It's something that we truly cannot live without.
That's true, not only because it's needed for survival
but also because it provides us with better reasons
to want to survive.
In our time fierce love is likely to take
the form of healing.
Healing can indeed be an expression of love.
From a certain point of view,
healing can only take place
in the presence of love
in one form or another,
and the best form of love for healing
may well be fierce love.
Our society as a whole is in need of healing
on a profound level.
It's not just racism and prejudice
that need to be healed.
We need healing from the apathy
that creates genuine social distance among us
as it has always done.
Apathy is like a magnetic force that repels,
as it pushes people apart.
You see, magnetism can work both ways.
It can attract, and it can repel.
The events of our times are like that.
They can draw us together,
or they can push us apart.
At first glance,
it may seem inevitable that our these events
will push us apart.
After all, the world-wide pandemic
makes physical separation necessary
for the well being of all of us,
especially for those who are most vulnerable.
At the same time,
the physcial separation is being done
for the protection and the well being of all of us,
again, especially for those
who are most vulnerable among us.
There is no way we can work
for everyone's well being
while continuing to live the way we used to live.
Many places, including our own,
are trying to reopen,
trying to return to something
that feels more normal,
and it is my fond hope
that we are not doing so prematurely.
At the same time
many people are gathering in public,
at considerable risk to themselves,
to express their desire to protect people
who are vulnerable in a very different way.
Minorities and those who are different from others
are especially vulnerable in hard times.
It's easy to look for scapegoats
or to try to find someone
whose suffering is greater than one's own
just to help ourselves to feel better.
Scapegoating and gloating over others' misfortune
are certainly false comforts,
and the more we humans try to indulge in them,
the more clearly we can see
how illusory they are.
Please note that I said,
"The more clearly we CAN see it,"
but we don't necessarily see what we can see.
Sometimes the things
that might be the most obvious to us
are the last things we actually see.
The oppression of minorities
is all too often invisible to those in the majority.
In our exceptional times,
the situation may have become entirely different.
With so many people staying at home,
working and studying from home,
many activities are difficult or even impossible.
I've heard the theory
that the present circumstances
have sensitized us to the sufferings of others.
It may just be that more of us are seeing things
that have been happening all along,
like the torture and death of George Floyd.
The fact of having been so cooped up for so long
may also have contributed to the actions
of so many people in going out to protest.
In any case,
our culture is at a turning point.
We have the opportunity to turn
in a direction of more caring,
more social closeness.
Sadly, there are also forces and people
trying to turn us toward deeper social distance
and alienation.
I cannot claim to know the end result,
but we are at an important time of choosing.
The direction we will go as a society
will not be determined by elections alone,
nor by protestors or troops in the streets alone.
There will have to be thousands of individual choices
that will determine the overall direction
of our communities, states, nations,
and even the planet as a whole.
You and I have tremendous power
in the things we choose to think, say, and do.
We really can make a difference,
even as we are living with physical distance
from each other.
My hope and desire
is that you and I will make the positive choice,
so that our social closeness
across all kinds of barriers
may prevail over social distance
from now on.
Amen.
Let it be.
Blessed be!
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home