SEEING SOME GOOD

Outside my window, it is reminiscent of the 1950s, at least the image I’ve constructed from family photos and popular culture. I see nuclear families playing pick-up baseball games in any old space, not an expensive turf. A couple kids ride by on their bikes, hollering to their siblings to keep up. In the evening, couples are strolling. Mornings, mothers are pushing strollers, looking ahead to eye their enthusiastic toddler. Seniors are ambling, chins titled upward as they take in the spring blossoms. Now and again, a car rolls quietly by. A little while later, if at all, a plane flies over. The sky is astonishingly blue. The air is breathable...easy. Birds can hear one another, and I can hear them. Moments last hours. Boredom is reborn. Neighbors don’t look busy, they look present.   

But in a few exquisite ways, this moment in time does not resemble the 1950s. Because the flow of people passing my window are of widely varied skin tones, religions and cultures, yet living peaceably together. Because often, dads are pushing the strollers and moms are not in the kitchen, but at the kitchen table, directing a Skype meeting. Because sometimes the nuclear families have two moms, or two dads, or one mighty parent. Because the kids, when hollered at by their siblings, are innately confident, asserting themselves if their brother or friend bullies them. Because many of the couples appear to be friends, equals, partners, having evaded the hierarchical form of matrimony. Because the seniors are not sidelined, but have a cell phone in their windbreaker, connecting them to family, friends and the vitality that flows from that rushing center of life where we feel needed and valued.

Of course, this moment in time does feel heavy. A single organism – a virus - has propelled our country to near boiling. The heat is from the disease, but also from the tragic, complex, and grossly unjust impacts the pandemic has wrought. Yet, as the view from my window shows, it is the 1950s without as much of the ugly underbelly. It is better. Change does occur, and often it is good. Really good. Right now, this is at least one thing we can celebrate.