Last Sunday, Rebecca Solnit published an essay on her newsletter Meditations in an Emergency called, “In the Dark Times, Will There Also Be Singing?”
She writes about how diligent and hypervigilant many of us have had to become over the last decade, and especially over the last few years. We scroll through our phones, trying to understand crises unfolding around us and among us, hoping that knowledge might provide some sense of control. After all, how can we act? How can we shift? And how can we help bring about change if we don’t even know what is happening?
Some people are hypervigilant because threats and policies are directed at them personally. Others may be less directly vulnerable but still find themselves on edge, waiting for the next shoe to drop or scanning for the right moment to take action.
Then Solnit raises some important questions: If none of this were happening in our country, what would we be doing instead? What has been lost? And what might currently be getting lost because so much of our attention needs to be here?
What a tragic thing to consider.
At one point she writes, “…I miss where my attention might have gone.”
But she doesn’t leave us there.
In the very same essay, she reminds us that we can also be playing. And creating. And making art. And blasting music. And marveling at nature. And laughing with friends. And thoroughly savoring the taste of food and drink.
No doubt, our neighbors deserve dignity, protection, and solidarity from us. And at the same time, we all deserve opportunities to create and experience the things that make life lovely, connective, meaningful, and transformative. We benefit from one another when we do this.
So if the times were different, where would your attention be going? … Do you miss it?
Where might it go now?
—Renee Roederer
Smuggling Grace 