I walked away from a storm yesterday, and rediscovered the light.
Having suffered through the Commission of Presidential Debate’s showing of Three Angry Men Tuesday night, following by a private screening of The Social Dilemma Wednesday night, I was feeling a little pessimistic about humanity. With Appleton’s COVID-19 hospitalization rate spiking, I had planned to stay home and mope.
But, the late afternoon sun peaked out and waggled its persuasive rays at me and I know the best deep, cleansing breaths happen outside, so I stuffed my phone in my back pocket and headed out.
I picked up my pace and headed west away from my normal route because I noticed storm clouds gathering in the east. Then, I saw them making their way north and I soon found myself surrounded by ominous skies.
A tree provided a line of demarkation so stark I had to stop and take a picture. Storm clouds encrouched, sunlight beckoned.
I followed the sun.
As I hustled along, I thought about life in general and we humans who are making our way through it.
It occurred to me, as it sometimes does, that it isn’t opposable thumbs that separate us from the rest of the animal kingdom. It’s free will.
We don’t have to click on the suggested videos social media so helpfully supplies us. We don’t have to ascribe to the weird consipracy theories that show up on our feed. We can use our intellect to source information we’ve been fed, and our heart to have honest conversations with ourselves and others about what is right and wrong in this old world.
And, we have a voice that we can use in the most profound way. We can vote.
As God is my witness, and I believe God was, a rainbow formed in the sky as I made my way home — a double rainbow, in fact.
We’ve got this, fellow humans. But we have some work to do.
I think we’ll all be okay if we follow the sun.
