Why Are You Here?
No this isn’t an existential question to ponder. One of my creative colleagues expressed a few weeks ago that she was experiencing what amounts to survivor guilt. Why were friends and relatives passing from COVID-19 complications and she is here and healthy?
Perhaps a better way to put the question is “Why are you still here?
I would say to anyone who is feeling that way, the answer may be because you are needed right now. You are needed to remember. You are needed as we are picking up the pieces and moving forward into a new reality. Whether you have remained healthy during this time, or had the virus and recovered, you are needed.
Artists have a particular role to play. We are the reflectors of society. We are innovators. We are storytellers. We are healers of the human spirit. We are creators. We are needed.
I do not diminish the deaths of those who lost—or will lose-- their lives to the virus. It is especially sad that it took their sacrifice for the alarm to be sounded. It is up to us to wake up now, and do something different
We are asked to never forget where this has brought us… and how the Earth itself celebrated during the time much of the world’s population was sheltering at home and grieving. We are encouraged to look around and embrace the incredible forging of new ways to communicate and create.
As we move forward, we must not only remember but we must move to act so we never go back to where we were. I sincerely hope that we do not return to what was ”normal.”
Normal compromised our world’s–– our Home’s––air, water, wildlife, even its shifting tectonic plates. Normal was us just going through each day on auto-pilot, for the most part, taking for granted the little things, like hugging our friends and relatives not living in our home. The little things, like being able to attend a house of worship, or gather for classes, or social events, or go for a walk in a park, or along the beach. The little things, like being able to pay for food, our rent and mortgages.
Normal was not appreciating the clerks and stocking people in our grocery stores, our mail delivery person, restaurant workers, sanitation workers, our kids’ teachers. Normal was laboring under the impression that our healthcare system was exemplary; that our doctors and nurses were just doing the jobs they chose to do. Normal was thinking that our economy was worth more than our lives. Normal was taking films, television, and live entertainment for granted, believing these outlets will always be available for our enjoyment. Normal was not paying attention the birds’ song, to the blue skies, to our very breath that brings us life.
We must not go back to “normal.”
Why are you still here? To move forward with strength, courage, love and wisdom. To adapt, invent, create in all aspects of life, sharing your encouraging vision of “what can be.” To use who you are to make a difference to yourself, your circles, and even to the world. To adopt a new paradigm that cherishes each person, respects the Earth, and continues to find ways to help each other.
Why are we here?
To remember.
To create.
To act.