Facebook Post by Rabbi Perlin in the Time of Coronavirus (5/26/2020)
Tuesday Post 5.26.20
Change is in the Air by Amy R. Perlin
Is it contagious? It’s everywhere.
What will happen to me? No one really knows.
Change is in the air.
The world is not the same.
The world is being forced to change,
as the future is a Zoom for today and who knows what for tomorrow.
We don’t wake up most mornings ready for change, or ready to change.
We are jolted out of our comfort zone when we are forced out of our slumber,
and when the demands of our time require change that history will eventually record as inevitable.
Will anything stay the same?
Is there a thing, or set of things, we can count on to be immutable?
For as the ground is shifting beneath my feet, I seek refuge in something safe and secure.
The future is masked for this moment, and that is as it should be.
But, change is in the air.
It is pervasive and I fear it could be painful.
So much uncertainty lies ahead.
Are we shaping the change, or will it shape us?
Will we fight it, embrace it, or just give in?
The ground is shifting beneath our feet and the air we breathe is no longer safe, for the moment.
We can only afford to shelter in place in these atmospheric conditions for so long.
And we can long for a sense of security, but at what cost?
Change is in the air, from the way we shop to the way we travel.
And that air is cleaner, even if it is not yet safe in other ways.
For buying into a new normal is the journey we will next have to take.
Change is always in the air side-by-side with the status quo.
Sometimes we filter it out and sometimes we figure it out.
And sometimes we have the courage to breathe it in.
Change is in the air today.
Here to stay —
It will shape our future, just as it has shaped our past.