WAY-ward.

Like it or not…  Believe it or not…  Agree with it or not…  COVID-19 aka Coronavirus has reminded us that when it comes to life, society, and the global community, we are all in this together. When it comes to our health, safety, and livelihood, humanity is intricately and inexplicably tied together. In fact, we are tied so closely that there are no points of escape, denial, or refuge.  In the past, the world could fall apart and we could seek sanctuary in a church. All hell could break loose and we could turn our brains off at the movie theater. “Yogurt” could hit the fan and we could still distract ourselves with a sporting event.  Before now, our neighbor could suffer, and we could avoid it. Groups of people would die and, for the most part, our life would go on uninterrupted. Our neighbors’ problems were just that… their problems… and not ours.  That is no longer the case. Our reality has been exposed.  Now, we know and cannot avoid this truth: what you d

I have recently discovered a whole other level of panic. I was filling up gas cans for my snowblower and the pump wouldn’t stop pouring out gasoline. In the event that this experience has never happened to you, you’ll have to take it from me… it. is. terrifying. The handle on the pump would not release. And so, there I stood at 9:30 at night in a lonely parking area, dispensing gallons of gasoline onto the cold concrete. What made this level of panic different than others is that I really felt completely and totally helpless. After what seemed like an eternity of showering my shoes with lighter fluid it dawned on me that I could put the handle in my car and hopefully get the automatic shut off to kick in. Luckily, it worked. (Side note: since this happened 1,383 people [or so and counting] have told me that I could have just put the handle back and some mechanism would have shut off. I did not know or think of that. It wasn’t my brightest hour.) Afterwards, I entered the stati