On our farm in the Hudson Valley in upstate New York, the local abbot of a Zen Buddhist temple manages our bees. His calm, tranquil temperament lends itself to the work. A few days ago we were talking about COVID-19 and social distancing. He believes the greatest crisis will come from the fact that most people “don’t know how to be” outside of their modern work-manic, consumerist daily routines.
A great deal of sickness and hardship is emerging from this time. The shock of the virus reveals how economically and socially vulnerable many of us are in the current system. But I can’t help thinking how much opportunity there is in this moment. Billions of us have had our regular life put on “pause,” a mass disruption that gives us a once-in-a-lifetime chance to stop and question the path we are on at the deepest level.
I teach a class at Bronx Community College and recently, one my students named Carl confronted me: “This shit seems hopeless,” he said, “All we do is talk about what’s broken. Most of us know that, live that. What do you think? How are we going to build a better world?”
