humbled

I was really humbled at work on Wednesday. In the morning our new department director scheduled a meeting for later that afternoon, and when we all called in he said he wanted to talk about current events. Then he broke down in tears, and had a really tough time getting the words out.

In the conversation that followed, many of my co-workers surprised me with their personal interest in the subject and the depth of their knowledge about it. I really respected the vulnerability they demonstrated, and their willingness to speak up and express themselves.

I stayed quiet, mostly because I’ve been avoiding the news. Some time last year, I started to realize that the headlines just made me angry, and I made it a practice to stay off social media and news apps. I started easing myself back in by listening to Marketplace every morning earlier this year (which turned out to be perfect timing to be aware of the pandemic as it entered the U.S. and started to spread), but then I fell off the habit again.

I’ve been thinking over the last few months about how, if it weren’t for my wife giving me the important news about the pandemic, I would have no idea what’s going on. It’s really not fair of me to appoint her my liaison to the outside world, and I had been thinking I should change that. But current events finally pushed me over the edge. As infuriating as it is that our country’s president cannot be the leader it needs during a time of unprecedented crisis, I can’t let that fury drive me away from public life entirely.

The first thing I read after wading back into the news was the statement by Jim Mattis released yesterday. The takeaway quote for me:

“Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people — does not even pretend to try. Instead he tries to divide us...We can unite without him, drawing on the strengths inherent in our civil society. This will not be easy, as the past few days have shown, but we owe it to our fellow citizens; to past generations that bled to defend our promise; and to our children.”

I’ll have more to say about this quote in another post.