labile
labile
able or likely to change or break down easily, rapidly, or continually; unstable
Every once in a while, I relisten to podcasts from 2020/21. COVID and community were talked about very differently in those days. The spirit of concern and care has faded since the vaccine rollout, once “you don’t have to do this anymore” was declared from on high. Permission was all it took for most people to abandon the vulnerable.
Once a widely accepted culture of eugenics took hold, innovative supports that emerged were rejected just like those they helped. Now, the general population is noticeably deteriorating while people of all political affiliations attend superspreader events claiming it’s “worth it”. In a cruel twist of fate, medically vulnerable people are forced to live within the same small box that everyone else deemed unsustainable.
There are many lessons in those first two years. Before we returned to a “Normal” that asks you not to think too hard about those disproportionately impacted. Lessons about points of failure, shared struggles, and the power of messaging. Most of all though, there are big things to learn about community.
Take a moment to reflect on your experience of this time. Who showed up and who didn’t? Were there moments you could have been there for someone, but weren’t? Protected someone, but didn’t? Name what stopped you. From hindsight, was that hurdle real or an excuse?
Other questions we should be asking: Who was disproportionately infected? Who lost employment more than other groups? Who bridged the gaps left by half-baked government plans? I’ll give you a hint, it’s the same people whose risk of harm increased the most as a result of the Dobbs ruling.
I don’t want to settle for a “Normal” that left so many behind. A normal where the people who have it the hardest always pay the biggest costs. A normal where we’re pitted against each other, instead of those who stoke the fires that consume us.
The only way out is to be better, and that starts with being there for people. Not when the next crisis hits, now.
ContextFall
Death Wish - Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit