“Anything is possible,” is a core belief of mine. It’s in the American DNA, for sure, and exponentially so if you hold the New York City mentality, but it carries a burden that tested my wellness.
The 2020 U.S. presidential election revealed serious symptoms in the body of 331 million people that are America. If the country were a patient, the diagnosis would be auto-immune disease.
Never would I imagine that a politician would speak publicly of Angels, Heart, Soul, Love, Faith, God, Universe, Empathy, Breath, Hope, and Hugging. But that’s what President-Elect Joe Biden did in his victory speech. His recognises his first job as healing the rifts that divide America.
People embark on The Way of St. James in Spain for different reasons. For me, it was a 20-year aspiration to see the Galician coast. I got much more.
To renew is more than starting anew. It’s a moment of discovering something already known with the wonder of experiencing it for the first time. It’s stripping away the extraneous to get at a core truth so intrinsic to one’s self that the emotion energizes forward movement. It’s the gift of free will that enables us to shift a mindset, switch our energy and make a new start; it’s about knowing we have the power for change, which feeds hope.
2020 has been a dynamic year for collective identity. We experienced intense yet brief moments united — fighting the pandemic and systemic racism — but our inherent bias always will challenge us.
Preserving life would seem to be the most fundamental value to guide leadership decisions. Recent events have shown otherwise. It’s time for the people to lead.
My upbringing taught that everyone was equal. As an adult, I’ve learned that racism and poverty are ingrained in society. We need all hands on deck to right this reality.
The George Floyd incident has really shaken me to the core. Shock. Disgust. Sadness. His murder comes five years after an NYC officer did the same to Eric Garner.
Only twice have I walked past churches with doors bolted shut for days. War. Pestilence. September 11th. Covid-19. And this is when we most seek such havens.