“You do not think yourself into a new way of living. You live yourself into a new way of thinking.”
This whole COVID-19 pandemic certainly has forced unexpected changes on all of us. We have each had to adapt to a new way of living. Many of these changes have demanded sacrifices and forced us to become more concerned about our neighbour, the community and the world in which we live. We begin to understand that our own wellbeing is very closely tied to the wellbeing of all others. These are no longer just words. Whether we like it or not, we begin to understand at a very basic survival level, that it’s not just about me. We begin to live ourselves into a new way of thinking. We become more sensitive and appreciative to all the goodness that surrounds us and the privileges that we took for granted in the past. Hopefully, this new reality has helped us become better human beings and a better human family.
This leads into the second quote, which is from Martin Luther King.
“The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.”
The current protests happening in our world are a dramatic expression of outrage for injustices imposed by systemic racism, something imbedded in the present from past economic and social systems concerned more with individual and national preservation of power, privilege and control than justice, peace and the common good.
In some fundamental way, I believe this whole experience with the pandemic has magnified our need to be there for one another, regardless of race color or creed. Despite the challenges, it has helped us become more sensitive and caring for one another. Words such as freedom and equity can be seen and understood through eyes more focused on collaboration, peace, harmony and sharing rather than competition, injustice, discord and self-interest.
Freedom must be responsible and empowering for all such that equity can be experienced by all. There must be trust in those, who are given the right to govern according to a constitution created and owned by legitimate democratic consent.
I believe that humanity’s desire for itself has always been to seek out truth and happiness. The journey, however, has and will continue to be long. Hopefully the peaceful protests that are dominating the headlines today will help bend the arc of the moral universe toward a more just and peaceful world.
Wilf Borgstede
St. Albert
