We Don't Know and We Should Stop Pretending

If there's a theme to 2020, it's that every other year looks rosy by comparison.  It shouldn't, but it does, mostly because after six months of bad news, of frightening news, of traumatizing news, we no longer expect to hear anything else, such that a sunny day, a plane landing safely, and a week without  major unrest is now news.   We're in the years where the fat cows were eaten by the thin ones, and we're not Egypt. 

After watching a series of worskhops on helping students to handle stress, I thought to myself, we are the blind leading the blind, because we're all stressed and the handling of stress is something highly idocyncratic.   Listening to flutes and waves and breathing may be peaceful for some, and it does erode the hard points after a time, but for others, it merely reminds us that we are deliberately seeking to shave down the sharp edges of the word.  Knowing what people are stressed about is an ongoing matter of making connection, and seeking to either address the actual needs, or at the very least, provide comfort while enduring whatever it is.

There is so much that we're enduring, how do we help blunt the edges when the edges are so very visible?  It's not that the world needs to be shrink wrapped, but that we need to by our words and actions make the world actually less full of sharp points that cut the soul.

First, we should stop pretending we know because we don't.
We should also recognize, all we know, is subject to change.
The only cure in the meantime before there's a cure, is kindness.
The only cure even when there is a cure, is even more kindness.
If we want to de-stress everyone, everyone is suffering from a shortage of kindness.
It's that simple, it's that true.
The result will be, a return of the time of feasts, if not in reality, then in our hearts.