AN EDITED VERSION OF THIS POST APPEARS IN LETTERS TO THE EDITOR IN THE BOSTON GLOBE
They are boarding planes, taking trains and buses, loading up their cars. All headed to the same destination.
The place where the heart resides.
They are not intending to do ill but they will take that chance. They are not wishing to get ill but they will suffer the consequences if they must. They are not asking to suffer but they are suffering already.
And so they defy the directives, they deny the realities, they decry the fates that would keep them apart.
Because they must be a part on this day. They must be one of many, not many who are each one. For if they are not together then they are not whole. And the hole in each of them would be too large for any of them to bear.
By the millions they have a single tale to tell. Of survival of the soul. Of a pandemic that would strip them of everything even if it never touched them. Of a disease that invaded every inch of their being even if it never reached them. Of the pain they felt coursing through their veins even if their health was unencumbered.
And so there is an exodus, a leaving behind of the loneliness of this God awful year, a journey to a spot where there is safety in numbers, even as there is danger in gathering. A day when they can remember how it used to be and forget for even the briefest of moments how it is.
They are heading home for the holiday. Because they cannot live without it. Even if they risk dying because of it.
The place where the heart resides.
12 comments:
Wow
How fortunate we are to live near our families!
😘
LB
So true.
PB
You speak with great compassion toward those who cannot bear the pain of separation any longer. I can hardly bear the pain either, but I love my family more than I fear the pain and so I choose not to endanger them. That does not make me right, let alone righteous... it is simply my decision. Wishing all a safe Thanksgiving. D
My decision is the same as yours D. I was just looking at so many millions of people on the move despite the warnings and trying to set forth what I imagine they might be thinking
RSN
Fantastic writing.
BL
The Boston Globe!!
What next, the Pulitzer?
ER
Great writing
TH
This was very special
L
Written so beautifully
This pandemic has taken a severe toll on all
Including the lockdown healthy.
FCL
Unfortunately, you're spot-on in this piece!
Don
Boston Globe? What next? The Berkshire Eagle?
PB
set forth below is the contents of a wonderful letter I received yesterday:
"If you are the person who recently wrote a letter to the
editor in the Boston Globe, please read on. If you are not that
person, please just throw this note away!
I was so taken with your letter I had to write and tell you. Like
everyone else around here, I have been reading lots and lots of
articles, news pieces in the Times and Globe, essays, and have watched
more television news than ever in my life - but I have not seen
anything that captures the pandemic that is as powerful as what you
suggested in your pithy letter. I'm a psychologist/psychoanalyst so I
hear in my daily work a lot about the way people are dealing with all
these conflicts and choices. You managed to refer to those choices so
poetically and evocatively, and I thank you for that. Reading your
note was like being in touch with the "unthought known." I suspect you
know a fair amount about "where the heart resides."
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