Emotions

On the one hand, it’s depressing to read the stats of this Fast Company article on how many Americans are struggling with midlife. On the other hand, it’s encouraging to see this kind of sociological overview in a popular business magazine.

Occasionally, there’s a TED talk that brings a tear to my eye, a song to my heart, and an epiphany to my head. This TED talk by Dr. Dixon Chibanda is one of those. There are just 12 psychiatrists in Zimbabwe, a country with 14 million people.

How Lessons From Our Furry Friends Can Ease and Enliven Our Transition to Elderhood When we’re young, we never think it will happen to us. Sure, on some level, we know it’s inevitable, but it’s too far away to be real. And then, it happens! We realize that yes, somehow, someway, we have ascended the crest of the proverbial midlife hill and are transitioning to being seniors! When my wife Amy turned sixty, this realization hit us (I will join her in a few months) smack in the face like a well-timed pie! (We’re still licking off the coconut cream!)

As the world opens up, many of you may begin to notice a strange phenomenon. I am starting to call it the “phantom IRL” effect. It goes something like this: After 14 months of lockdown you finally get to meet someone in person you haven’t seen in a really long time, or someone that you have only known through zoom or some other type of video-based communications.

I float in that place Between slumber and stirring In my Liminal sleep.

This New York Times Op-Ed, “You Can Be a Different Person After the Pandemic,” prompted me to write this ode to the past year.

I miss rocking with the Glide Memorial Gospel Choir in person when I’m in San Francisco. I miss volunteering there to help feed the homeless. I missed having my 60th birthday party in Big Sur.

We live in a shut down time. COVID will eventually let up and we will again start to gather, with pent-up revelry and passion. Our Roaring Twenties await us, just as happened post-Spanish flu and World War I. Can the choices we make about how we gather help inform and unite us in addressing equity, sustainability, and the climate crisis?

We are more reliant than we know on an invisible industry that has been pummeled by the pandemic. They accommodate us, feed us, make us laugh, and feel a sense of connection. But, you’ve never heard of this gigantic industry before. 2020 was a year of cruel ironies for the American “gathering industry.”

“The very act of assembling is an exceptionally powerful stimulant. Once the individuals are assembled, their proximity generates a kind of electricity that quickly transports them to an extraordinary degree of exaltation.” - Sociologist Emile Durkheim