Where Do We Go From Here: The Great Realization

The Great Realization is that we had reserves of strength within us.

This wasn't macho strength. This wasn't strength backed up by AR-15s.

This was strength which came to us when we told our mothers that we couldn't kiss them.

This was strength which came to us when we entertained our children.

This was strength which we realized when we just stood outside our doors, applauding those who cared for us.

This was strength which, if we were fortunate enough, we found when conscripted to work to defeat the virus.

Someone from the future won't ask: How much did you hoard during the Plague?

Someone from the future will ask: Were you kind? Did you go out of your way? Did you help flatten the curve? Were you decent?

Someone from the future will ask: Did you do all you could? Did you complain? Did you roll your eyes?

We know what we have to do. And, now, in our isolation, we know what future we want.

I know. I know. It's hard to imagine any future different from the present we have now. But humanity has never been as it is now. It has never been as connected and exposed as it is now. We witness our frailties in real time. We witness our triumphs and ignominy in real time. There's no filter. No Communist government in China, or soi disant fascist in Washington, can hide that. We are who we are. Warts and all.

It's hard to imagine a future different from what we have. But it has always been so. That's no reason to not imagine it. And that's not a damned reason to not work for it.

You may have noticed that I'm not overly concerned with the current thrust of the political moment. Part of that is because I know we have a vigorous candidate in Joe Biden. But another part of that is because the moment is bigger than any political argument. It's bigger than Republican or Democrat.

When this plague began, I was reading World War Z. And I even, in my superstition, thought I had helped engender this moment.

But what this plague has shown, like that book posited, is that we hairless monkeys are more than we dream of. We are sailors on the waves of the universe. We are not mere ciphers, but souls with infinite possibility. We are the Alpha and the Omega, and we have the universe within our grasp, if we only take it. Our only limits are those we impose on ourselves, from outdated ideologies.

The Great Realization is that we always had this power within ourselves. We merely, purely, have to seize it.

(Video, and thus this piece, brought to my attention courtesy of BB.)

(Also, too: The Brits spell "realization" with an S. Don't hold it against them.)