[Oe List ...] Coronavirus Witness

[Jack Gilles]

Dear Colleagues,

I had a friend in India in her email this morning ask; “How are you doing?" My first reaction was to just say I was doing well and some other chit chat. But I stopped and just thought of how I would respond if I really reflect on what is going on with my life. As I scan through FaceBook posts there are a lot of posts of how people are enjoying walks, or time to do things they have put off. Other posts are about games, or diversions to pass the time with interest. And of course there are always thoughts on Donald Trump. 

As I pondered it I saw two things; "What it has done to me, and what it has done for me". In the first instance it has flipped my frame of reference. With my boundary of Space set, it made me more aware of Time. It is the daily repeat of time in the same space that strikes me. Not just routines, but energies, lightness, transitions and  darkness. But especially silence. I began to want to be conscious of the Canonical Hours again. Each part of the day and night has a rhythm, a feel, and a gift. 

The greater insight was what it has done for me. Perhaps the most exciting thing for me in the Order was our view of the world. We lived every day as global citizens. People who saw the future in terms of our commons. Things like the Social Process, or the Ur’s, the Global Odyssey, and the symbols we lived with; like the Earth Rise picture. We saw ourselves as helping to bring forth this common future. “All of the Goods of the Earth and all…….” we sang with deep identity. We saw the globallity from the outside in. The question was “How to make it happen?”. 

But the virus changed that. Yes, we are common, but now from the inside out. We all are having the same experience. We are one with common suffering, common anxiety and common unknowns. We are Global Citizens, all of us; every large, small, tall, short, urban, rural…… We see our humanity, and my, how splendid it is.

Peace,

Jack
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