In the Introductory Guided Reflection of my recent Virtual Lent and Holy Week Retreat, I use a quotation from “The Boys in the Boat:” “What mattered more than how hard a man rowed was how well everything he did in the boat harmonized with what the other fellows were doing. And a man couldn’t harmonize with his crewmates unless he opened his heart to them. He had to care about his crew.”
Using the metaphor of an individual rower in an eight-oared shell, we are approaching our spiritual work in this retreat in a different mode—that of dedicating the fruit of our work to specific others and of paying directed attention to the relationship between the part and the whole, between the individual and the community. For me this, has been a useful frame to discern my place and responsibility in the present Covid-19 crisis.
At the risk of excessive self-disclosure, I want to share with you not just the content but also the means by which I have arrived at a personal decision of my response to the current threat of this virus in the United States and throughout the world. I am setting this forth that it might inspire you to think through your own position with regards to your own future actions. In this I by no means expect that you will arrive at some of the same conclusions as I have—only that you will have thought through both your personal issues and the wider issues and forces at play.
For myself, in having to approach the present situation with as much self-honesty and integrity as I am able, I have had to excavate through layers of personal issues, like staring down my desire never to let anyone down and my proclivity for playing out the story of the hero. Beneath those layers of individual story I have come to see more clearly my relationship with, and responsibility to, the greater community.
Specifically, I have come to see how I as an individual can help to “lower the curve” for the community as a whole. In order to slow the speed of the first wave of this virus to keep it from overwhelming our medical systems—for me, social isolation is imperative. If not slowed, the emergency medical needs of those critically affected by this first wave could well far exceed what can be delivered. Therefore, I myself am limiting my contacts with others and cancelling or postponing all gatherings. This is based on a primary concern for the whole, the community. In this, the metaphor of the individual rower in a rowing shell with others has been helpful.
But isn’t this capitulation to the forces of fear, panic, and hysteria? I supposed it could be, but that is not at all how I have arrived at this conclusion. Rather, I believe one can be fully grounded, embodied, and seeing from the heart in order to rise above the fear and panic to find the primacy of love and concern for the greater community.
Don’t I give up my power by such a withdrawal from the active stream of life? Quite the contrary. To recognize the link of love with the greater community empowers me to help lift the burden that this pandemic is bringing to humanity around the globe. In so doing I recognize the efficacy of directed love and attention. Here, then, is an incredible opportunity to contribute to the whole instead of insisting that I have the right to continue business-as-usual.
In this decision I have been guided by my head as well as my heart. Although the powers-that-be have tried to muffle it, I have tried to listen to the science. For example, I have intentionally rejected others’ minimalization by comparing this virus with the flu. Besides listening to my heart, I am listening to the public health professionals who actually know something about the pandemic situation we are in.
I encourage you to think through your own position and plans of moving forward in the next few weeks. Might the metaphor of the individual rower in a boatful of others be helpful to you? Moving beyond fear and panic, can you articulate your own position? Can you find a foundational platform on which you might stand and feel both unified and grounded?
Love, Bill
Epidemiologists call this strategy of preventing a huge spike in cases “flattening the curve,” and it looks like this: