I’m quickly coming to love the new opportunities afforded through Zoom technology.
I attended Sunday School, a salon-style discussion on Coriolanus, and an Aroma Freedom Therapy (AFT) session today.
The parable of the Good Samaritan was the brought up in Sunday School and has been a theme in our house for weeks. Are we simply following the rules of society by social distancing and self isolating? Are we acting in love when we celebrate junk food binging and how many empty bottles of wine we have on the counter? Regardless of what you have been told is right, does it feel right? Does it feel right to sit in your comfortable house with your spouse and children and type in ALL CAPS at neighbors who may be in genuine pain as they watch an insane world alone from their couches?
It doesn’t feel like we are treating ourselves or our neighbors with the same love that Jesus walked. I pray for answers of how to live in love at this time when the rules of society have become so burdensome.
With these puzzles on my mind I turned to finish watching Donmar Warehouse’s production of William Shakespeare’s Coriolanus. Some lines spoke to me:
“That’s sure of death without it, at once pluck out/The multitudinous tongue; let them not lick/The sweet which is their poison.”
“Anger is my meat.”
“For I will fight against my cankered country with the spleen of all the under-fiends.”
“He is grown from man to dragon.”
“Now the red pestilence strike all trades in Rome/And occupations perish!”
Shakespeare always had something for today. Coriolanus’s mother curses Rome with a disease that will destroy its economy. It’s a reminder that nothing, not even coronavirus, is new under the sun.
The fear and anger of nearly every character speaks to the air breathed by so many articles and posts. The willingness of the people to follow elected leaders, first one way, then another, speaks to a modern populace more likely to parrot rules than question narratives.
I admire Coriolanus’s singularity of purpose. In the most confusing world I have ever faced (quite something for a dad who became a widower at age 38), I am lost for purpose. I have found myself loving people more in being separated from them. “I shall be loved when I am lacked,” serves as a mirror to my heart.
At the same time, I see that love as a rarer thing. I read as neighbors bark rules at neighbors and never pause to ask, “Why?” At least not asked deeper than to repeat words from the same leaders and media who have lied us into countless wars among ourselves and against others.
Yesterday Coriolanus warred against Aufidius. Today he wars by his side. Tomorrow? Betrayal and death. It’s the guaranteed outcome of every war. People against people and a wreckage of property and lives strewn about.
The difficult questions pile up. They are all useful, all pointing me where I need to go.
These questions took a backseat as I went on a two-hour driving adventure with my sons. For for the second leg, they agreed on listening to a Jordan B. Peterson lecture. The subject was Toxic Masculinity and afforded us many topics that will no doubt create numerous conversations in the coming days.
After dinner on-the-go and a long day, I thought I was used up. I grabbed the phone as I changed into pajamas and discovered that my friend, Julianne McElroy, was just going online with a complimentary AFT session. She had told me about this technique of combining essential oils with classic psychology, but I had never tried before. In a quiet blink, two hours passed and I was standing in tree pose, taking claim of a greater understanding of, and compassion for, the world.
It was a Sunday of firsts. The kind of busy exploration that my mind craves. Yes, we got out of the house, but much of my gratification was found at home today.
My mind expanded and my blessings multiplied. I have taken the first steps on my next journey.
God bless and thank you for reading,
Jason