[Tension & Renewal - III]
The greatest disease of our time is disconnection. From each other and from the natural world. From our own bodies and from the social bodies that keep the world running. From purpose and meaning and the divine.
How much organic matter is in the soil in your front yard, and why does that matter? How is your neighbor handling her sister-in-law’s death and her husband’s career change? Why’s the new levy being pushed through this year when it was voted down four years in a row?
While these questions seem arbitrary, they share a critical similarity: they require connection. To your neighbor, the natural world, and the institutions governing our local community.
The antidote to the disease, says our medical mindset, is to isolate the source and thereby inhibit its spread. Unfortunately we’re far beyond that point—it’s already a pandemic, as far reaching as plastic waste or air pollution. No sweeping solutions exist. Only small, intentional acts of nourishment, engagement, learning, intentionality, and connection will do.
Find those, and you’ll find the beginning of healing.
