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| Photos taken by me, of the same mushrooms on my forest morning walks near St Ives, one day apart. |
In a weird way, I am feeling more emotionally
connected now than I have felt for a long time. I feel like I’m a bit
Aboriginal with their kinship system, or that I am moving from an “I and It”
orientation to a “We” centred way of being (1).
A week ago, there was a moment when I stood
looking at empty shelves in the St Ives Coles supermarket. Potatoes, other
vegetables, eggs, pasta - all gone! It seriously disturbed me. I am embarrassed
to write this. People have died and will continue to die from this disease,
while many others have lost their jobs, and spouses and children in abusive
homes are suffering extreme distress. It
seems wrong to think about anything else. However, the reality is that we
humans are spiritual beings living in animal bodies, and we’re desperately
dependent on our next feed. There are things that we describe with pronouns
like “it”, that are very important to us.
My children recently arrived back from Crown
Heights in New York where the rate of contagion is high. Usually that is an
occasion for hugs, but not this time. Fortunately, we have some space in the
house to cordon off areas for them to be isolated in, but I am worried about
the spread of this plague, so I am self isolating and working from home. While
I like my 'things', like my office, it is more important to do my bit for the
broader effort and stay home. I must sacrifice an “it” for the sake of the “we”
that is the other humans in this city. The Torah’s word for sacrifice is
essentially the same word as closeness (2) and the intention of the animal
sacrifices in the temple was to create closeness with God (3).
People like me, who are privileged to be able
to continue our jobs and earn a living from home, should spare a thought for
those who cannot. I think of service workers in the US, such as those described
by Jesse Jackson many years ago: “...women, who [put their own lives at risk to] clean out the bedpans of the
sick, wipe the sweat of fever on their foreheads, change their clothes - and
when they got sick, couldn't lie on the [same] bed they'd made up every day”!
(4)
The
term social distance is inaccurate (4). What we need is physical distance
between bodies, rather than social distance between our spirits. Yet, we are
seeing some evidence of the latter. Angela Kim, an Australian nurse with Asian
ancestry recently wrote on Facebook: “I
just saw a post with a picture of Asians on a bus saying they are hoarding from
regional places. If this is true, I'm sorry. I myself am an Asian and I am
deeply saddened to see people panic buying and being selfish during the crisis.
But myself, my family, my friends and my colleagues being Asian, are not like
them... So many times I get called out with racist comments on the street with
anger. ...Generalisation occurs easily when there's fear and anger. ...please
have an open mind, not all Asians are the same”.
Angela’s anguished post touched me. Other posts address
generalisations about religious Jews' compliance with distancing. These are
just some examples of the pain people are experiencing. A silver lining for me
at this difficult time has been to tune in more strongly to other people. I am
using social media and my phone more intentionally as a means of care,
compassion and companionship. On Sunday, my family and I got dressed up for a
cousins’ wedding in New York and recorded ourselves dancing in Sydney, as a way
of being there for a family member. I am noticing wonderful anecdotes of
kindness on social media. I hope that the terrible sacrifices and the suffering
caused by this virus might lead to a brighter future for some people, in some
way. But I am focused on the here and now - to increasingly support each other,
as well as care for ourselves.
Notes
1) From a
conversation with Michelle Brenner, influenced by the work of Dr. Alan Watkins
and others.
2) Korban, קרבן is the word for
sacrifice, while Karov קרוב is the word for close. The root of both is ק.ר.ב.
3) Likutei
Torah based on Leviticus 1:2. It elaborates there on the spiritual meanings of
various sacrifices, eg. to sacrifice an ox is to commit to reduce aggression,
while a sheep represents selfish indulgence as manifest in sheep spending their
days eating grass.
5) Ghassan
Hage in a facebook post on 16.03.2020 “we spend so much time teaching students the difference
between social and physical distances and here is the world normalising the
usage of social distancing to mean physical distancing. what’s required is
physical distancing, right?”
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