“Grateful or Frustrated” or “it ebbs and flows”
I’ve come to realize these are the two ways people are dealing with the pandemic, the preventative lockdowns, and our emotions about these. In fact, these are the two ways people deal with any crisis or situation, and these reveal very distinct ways of thinking.
If you’re in the former camp – you’re grateful to a higher power for the blessings you have, or you’re frustrated with the higher power with the hand dealt to you and perhaps to society in general – it means you’re of the belief that said higher power has a direct role to play in our lives, and there is a way to pray ourselves out of a situation. It’s a good place to be in, because you can submit to the higher power for your frustrations and just be your smallest self, comfortable in the knowledge that someone somewhere is looking out for you.
If you’re in the latter camp, you believe that the higher power has better things to do than to bother with you. You’re left to your own devices, but with a hand dealt in terms of luck and probabilities. Instead of being ‘grateful’, you’re ‘glad’. This is fine too. This let’s you believe in yourself and the humanity of others before any external forces. Community is what you make of it and if it’s up to you, you’d rather make a good community than a bad one.
Here’s the thing though – most people sit in the middle somewhere, or hop fences as the situation or mood arises. This is fine too. You can’t always shift left the blame or the praise for an outcome. Similarly, you can’t always shrug and say that nothing is in your control.
This pandemic, and its ensuing craziness has taught me this – deal with it however you feel like, in the moment you feel like. Move between moods. It’s allowed. We’re humans. We’re not bound to be immutable. There’s God for that.