June 7

 “I wonder where this pandemic is moving us.” I know where I want it to move us! “Surely,” I say to myself, “people will now see how all of us, all nations, all peoples, are interconnected. Surely, this common experience can teach us that we need to find cooperative ways of living together on this planet.” Then another voice speaks up in my head, “There you go again, Carolyn. You are not thinking rationally or practically. I wouldn’t bet the beach house, the one you don’t even have, on that happening.” 
 
I have learned other people don’t see the world from my perspective, they don’t have the same hopes I have - and, oddly, I have not been put in charge of determining how life on earth will unfold. I want the world to change - yet I know I have a tough time changing even small things about myself. Still I want to commit myself to following Jesus who, I believe, did preach that we are all interconnected, all children of God - and that we are to live together respectfully, lovingly, non-violently. 
 
Sadly, I realize that Jesus was put to death for the way he lived, what he taught. His way was not popular with the powers that be in his day, his way is not popular with the powers that be today. A line from Don McLean’s  Starry, Starry Night comes to mind. The song is addressed to Vincent van Gogh, but I think it could just as easily be addressed Jesus. “Now I think I know what you tried to say to me/ How you suffered…/And how you tried to set them free,/ They would not listen, they did not know how,/Perhaps they’ll listen now.”