Seeing-Remembering-Connecting

 

By the Rev. Dr. Karen Bloomquist written today:

“Seeing-remembering-connecting”1 has become in 2020 far more urgent, subversive, even revolutionary. Although rooted in recognizable religious practices, these verbs are crossing boundaries that go far beyond the church. Many developments are coming together and reaching a fevered pitch: the pandemic with new ways of living, communicating and working; heightened awareness of systemic racism and vast inequalities; raging wildfires, intense storms, and other evidence that climate change is an urgent challenge. The current pandemic may be only a foretaste of what the 21st century may be like. We live in a revelatory time, provoking us to see-remember-connect in new ways.

This current pandemic may be waking us up that a far more sweeping revolution is needed. What has been “normal” may be no more. What is unknown, and spreading vehemently in ways that no human strategy or solution can meet, is being revealed. This virus is itself revelatory. Human life and nature have become out of sync, no longer mutually dependent. No matter how ingenious are any human efforts or even vaccines, what is being revealed again is that humans cannot control “nature” --- even how this virus spreads. What we can and must do is keep our distance or cover our faces so as to not contaminate others. Beyond that, what is unknown leads many to cave in to fears, which make them vulnerable to various appeals, including those that are authoritarian. Fears are especially manipulated through polarizing appeals, whether from the right or left.

What is being revealed again is that human beings are not in control, and cannot control this virus, or nature in general --- especially for the sake of human well-being and economic progress. We turn to science and technology to save us, and indeed, they are important --- especially in this pandemic. But being out of control, and unable to predict the future is especially feared. We live by predictability and normalcy as we have known it. Fears escalate when this is no longer the case.

See Dr. Bloomquist's Book, "Seeing-Remembering-Connecting" published in 2016.