Connecting With Wisdom

In the coming weeks and months, if you are in contact with elderly friends or relatives, ask them about times of crisis they have endured and how they dealt with the situation. Many of our living elders came through WW2, a time when entire streets were destroyed in a night, with death arriving regularly and violently. Food was strictly rationed and there was no clear picture about how long the war would last, or if the forces of Nazism would take over our country and the entire world.
We have gained amazing material comforts in recent decades, but increasingly this crisis is waking us up to what we have lost. We have lost the simple connectedness, whereby communities thrive through myriad acts of helping, which should be routine but now stand out as selfless acts of kindness. Equally tragically, we no longer treasure our elders. (photo: Gennaro Leonardi)