Walking around my Washington DC neighborhood and in adjoining Rock Creek Park in recent days, I have felt a rush of love and tenderness for many of the passersby I have glimpsed from a safe distance.
Laughing and bantering with each other, enjoying the gorgeous spring floral bloom happening around us, and quite clearly trying to vanquish fear, they remain upbeat and hopeful amidst ever increasing fears over the coronavirus.
Especially moving to me are the young parents, rushing to keep up with their small children who are zooming along on bikes and scooters.
It’s been decades since I was the parent of a small child, but I remember vividly that elemental and sometimes euphoric sense of love and connection–as well as the responsibility that goes with it.
Nowadays, parents have to summon the psychic strength to stay positive and reassuring for their children, even as they are fighting back the natural fears inside themselves.
Somehow the parents and kids I’ve been seeing appear to be profoundly OK and moving forward, and just glimpsing that dynamic from the side makes me believe anew in the essential goodness of the human heart.
Inspired by those around me–the vast majority of whom I have never met–I am feeling hopeful myself that this shattering experience we are all enduring will prove positively transformative for humanity.
It will remind us of what really matters in life and that, as the chalk sign scrawled on a sidewalk a block from my house says, “We’re all in this together.”
