It is hard these days to feel a kinship with people who only seem to care about their tribe. In a way tribalism has permeated all of us. In the past, my persona tended to be more inclusionary. When my experience now increasingly includes people who have lost the ability for rational thought and action and their irrationality now physically threatens because it can give you a virus, you feel a need to protect yourself. No longer can a person silently look past someone’s indiscretions since it was only something that was a minor disturbance to our calm. Now, those indiscretions are physically threatening.
My wife and I were at the grocery store a few days ago and everyone except one woman about our age (60’s) was wearing a mask. This woman had a bandana she used to get in the store and then pulled it down around her neck and of course she had to yap, yap, yap at one of the employees in the produce section about something. Then at checkout the lady behind us was definitely getting too close even though she had a mask on. My wife was pissed and me too, but, I didn’t even look at the woman because I knew it would be a mean glare on my part. But, now that I think about it, I probably should have kindly asked her to give us more room to provide her a chance to be nice.
So, those of us who thought we were integral and accepting are being challenged now more physically. It is not a mental exercise anymore. And, that is producing a cognitive dissonance in us because we don’t want to act/feel negatively when we feel it is prudent to respond to what were in the past minor transgressions by people. Now, their minor transgressions can potentially sicken us and we are being stupid/weak/??? (pick your label) to not protect ourselves. A dilemma for sure. Are these “tests” for us to ascertain our readiness for the next level of existence?
A friend posted this article on FB the other day. It really lays bare the hypocrisy of our Christian values as a country. That hypocrisy was there before but just not as apparent. The so-called Christians are responding in increasingly bizarre ways where they gather in large groups and then participate en masse in illogical behavior to convince themselves to ignore the man behind the curtain. This article about the Bethel Church in Redding is a great example with the only thing missing being cups of Kool-aid.
We were talking to friends a couple nights ago about where we will move if Trump is reelected. I told them on my trips to Europe over the last 15–20 years that though I don’t speak the languages I still feel more at home there because my value system is more aligned. We jokingly talked about Canada, NZ, etc as possible safe havens but voting with our feet may become a real possibility. Why stay in a place where your values are increasingly becoming the minority and the fanatics are running the show?
