Those are the words of Anand Ghiridharadas in his guest monologue, titled “Plague and renaissance, a case for transformation.” The Ink, May 29, 2021. He describes the desire to “go back” and the lessons learned from the pandemic.
After more than a year of coping with the pandemic, we are tired—tired of the extra work to do daily activities, tired of mask wearing and hand washing. We are tired of living in fear, tired of being confined in our movements.
However, if we rush to forget the experiences of the last fifteen months, we miss the opportunity to grieve for the lives and way of living lost.
We also risk missing the opportunity to make substantive change.
We have a new awareness and understanding of systemic inequality. And, we have been given this moment in time to do something about it. As Anand says, “there is, in moments like this one, a possibility of tearing open a hole in the universe and marching through it.”
Take time to enjoy some relief from the restrictions of the past fifteen months, and then …
Let’s create the more equitable world of our mission statements.