A series of essays....
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| SIGN PAINTED BY ENIGMATIC STREET ARTIST, BANKSY. BACKED BY VIEW OF LONDON’S FINANCIAL DISTRICT, SOME BELIEVE HE WAS COMMENTING ON TODAY’S SOCIO-ECONOMIC DIFFERENCES. |
....as seen through my eyes!
By: Jacqueline E Hughes
As with many of us these days, it is difficult to secure a personal handle on life, let alone continue to grasp how important our solitude is as the flowers begin to bloom, buds pop-out on previously naked branches, and the weather valiantly tries to cooperate and align with the current season.
Waking up this morning I was greeted by a shared video of Le Mont-Saint-Michel with a person filming their solitary walk along the outer path of this tidal island that is generally known for it’s robust tourist trade and the musical laughter of the locals sharing their tiny spaces with others. Having visited this unforgettable place in France, it was eerily quiet now, with the exception of the cries of seagulls and pigeons as they performed aerial maneuvers between ancient stone chimneys accompanied by the ringing bells of the Abbey. The video tells its own story about our current situation with its quiet eeriness and lack of human jubilance and energy. I thanked the videographer for showing us how solitude truly feels in every nook and cranny around the world.
I know a French woman, born in Paris, who has lived in Indiana for many years and has found happiness in her pictures of local entities that remind her of her homeland. Taking seasonal pictures of a particular set of stone garden steps that lead up to a latticed wooden gate and into a secret garden, allows her to breathe in her past, combine it with her present life, and share the beauty of it all with us. I love how she’s combined French charm with Hoosier living...not always an easy thing to do, as spoken by a true Hoosier, born and bred.
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| THE VIBRANT TIDAL ISLAND OF MONT SAINT-MICHEL LOCATED OFF THE NORTHERN COAST OF FRANCE |
Courtesy of glcheng/Getty Images
By now, many of us have heard how mountain ranges, not seen for decades due to the deep mask of human pollution, are now clearly visible because mankind has, out of necessity of COVID-19, taken a backseat to Mother Nature. The animal kingdom is claiming back the territory that was once a lush and vibrant ecosystem of long grasses, tall trees, and insects but is clad in hard concrete today, instead.
As penguins meander the quiet streets in South Africa, an elephant plays a game of chicken with a solitary motorcyclist in India, a black bear nonchalantly navigates the driveway of someone’s urban home in California, and feisty kangaroos play ‘hopscotch’ along the deserted streets of Adelaide, Australia, we begin to see and feel how the lack of human dominance is slowly erasing the natural fear of the animals and replacing it with genuine curiosity. There are no cages or bars to be seen here. This particular zoo is being run via natural order with the physical universe considered as an orderly system subject to natural laws.
Is mankind capable of blending in with the earth’s natural laws rather than the other way around? Will our interpretation of this ‘pandemic attitude’ show us how things were meant to be and evoke change as we humans weave our way back into a world that is healing itself more and more each day? As long as the economy alone takes precedence over natural laws and the unique value of all life in general, the answer to these questions would have to be an astounding...NO!
“Sorry! The lifestyle you ordered is currently out of stock.” Consider the reasons for retaining an economically driven, high-end lifestyle from a one-percenter’s point of view with his assets in terms of toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and packets of baking yeast. It would be humiliating for them to have to wear a mask, so to speak, and place themselves in the same position as those ‘other people’ who exist so far beneath them. If they accumulate and hoard enough of the items listed above, their personal value and power over the others will always be based upon their economic stature. What if this attitude of higher importance was currently out of stock and the value of love and kindness became the currency we most valued? How different (better?) our lives might be!
Believe me, this pandemic doesn’t care who you are! To have so many take on the attitude of people who pretend to empathize with others only to express the complete inability to even fake empathy, correctly characterizes many people we should be trusting in right now.
Our social value can and should be much more than the size of our bank account. Success in our lifetime can and should be based upon much higher ideals and standards. By leveling out the playing field, at least to the point where everyone is healthy, employed, and happy, allows for the stability of the masses and creates a strong foundation for any nation that appreciates all of the people it represents.
It’s a beautiful thing that we are beginning to value all life on a much higher scale than ever before. With an attitude of self-confidence, we correctly choose solitude and personal isolation over the possibility of spreading a killing virus and compromising life itself as thousands of people from all over the world pass away with doctors and nurses holding their hands in lieu of their own loved ones. Sadly, this is an unfortunate residual of this highly contagious, worldwide pandemic we have been exposed to.
Now that we’ve been given the gift of staring out of the window, mind wandering from this to that, happy to see a neighbor from around the block walking her dog down the middle of the street, and anxious to have the mail truck stop at our mailbox, we feel how different the world is from only a few weeks ago. We have been given the precious gift of observation and the ability to rethink the past, place ourselves in suspended animation, and finally begin paying attention to the real world around us.
We are resilient. We will rebound from all of this. That will be when the hard part truly begins. Even though the coronavirus is saying that all is not yet lost, our mission will be to learn from its teachings; decide how best to proceed into our new world where we must share the planet and assess our relationship with a natural system much more advanced and unpretentious than man could ever be. We can change our lives, reshape the world based upon mutual respect, and make this world great again!
Stay safe. Stay strong. Stay healthy and never stop looking forward to a better world to live in.
Copyright © 2020 by Jacqueline E Hughes
All rights reserved
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