PhotoCredit: BlackHeart
I wrote my blog during the week in a fit of productivity. Given the events of the weekend nothing I wrote seems relevant. It’s feeling a little hard to know what to think let alone what to write. We spent the weekend in some sort of vortex of vortex’s with riots seemingly surrounding us. Helicopters and sirens were the playlist of the weekend. A pandemic wasn’t enough. A war zone had erupted around us.
I never feared my personal safety but, that said, I didn’t feel safe either. Which seems fair enough given the ignition point of the riots around the US. A significant number of fellow citizens don’t feel safe on a day to day basis.
It’s not ok. It’s not ok that any human doesn’t feel safe. In society or, for that matter, in the workplace.
One of the strongest messages from the weekend is that silence is not ok. I struggled with this. Honestly, I don’t know what to say. Harder still, I don’t really know what to do. I did the only thing I knew I could do - I went out to my neighborhood shops and just felt the impact of the insanity of the prior night. I watched as glass was swept up, beautiful stores were destroyed and businesses were boarded up. My heart broke as one of my favorite stores had every beautiful item, every treasure, smashed to pieces. Not just things but works of art that became casualties of the mayhem.
I even watched, not realizing what I was seeing, as a man fled a store with his arms full of the last goodies that remained in an unattended business. In broad daylight.
We were doing what we could to help the businesses. Sweeping glass, checking in. Feeling overwhelmingly helpless in the midst of all the destruction. I feel more helpless in the midst of the broader issue of human rights and equality.
One store that lost everything had the presence of mine to post that, while they lost everything, it was replaceable and must not be a distraction from the true issue at hand. His intention was so clear. There is a broader conversation we need to have. Lives are not replaceable.
Let’s not miss the point.
As I have contemplated this moment in my life, in our life, I keep coming back to intention. There is much work to be done, yes, but it is also work we must do on a daily basis. The bottom line is that much of most of our days are not spent intentionally. We get busy, distracted, overwhelmed and unable to participate in society much more than an instagram post and a couple of zoom calls.
When our words and actions are not thoughtful - shit hits the fan.
I don’t have the answers. I barely know the questions to ask right now. What I do know is that how I treat my fellow humans will have impact. The simple act of reaching out over the weekend, much like we did at the start of the pandemic, has real impact. Kindness seeps out. Awareness creeps in.
So if you are struggling with what to do, I have a simple place to start. Stay connected to yourself and stay connected to your people. Start there. From that place we will have the broader conversation with the compassion and impatience it deserves. And as you have other ideas, please let me know. This is the time for us to speak up and speak out.