Good Things

 

All my life I have read, avidly.  The past few years?  Not so much.  I was busy with stuff, lots of stuff that took my time and attention and left me wrung out, not wanting to engage with a book in the way that I used to do.  So I read in little nibbles instead of large chunks.  But I did read.

I assumed that during the pandemic (when I saw that it was coming) I would take a deep dive into reading again.  But I found my attention span was still measured in nibbles.  So instead of reading a book a week (or so) it was taking me a lot longer.

There are times when things seem to come together in surprising ways.  Just this year alone I have read two memoirs - If I Knew Then by Jann Arden, and just now finished No Time Like the Future by Michael Fox.

On the face of it, these two people have some similarities.  Both in the entertainment field, Arden a singer/songwriter, now actress.  Fox a movie and TV actor (mostly) but also a writer.  Both activists. Both Canadian.  I have no idea if that is important or not.  (Well, Fox is now an American citizen, but still close to his Canadian roots.)

I was about half way through Fox's book when he wrote "Good things can come from bad things."  The same sentence had been used by Arden in her book, and the synchronicity rang loudly in my ear.

It is an observation that I have made myself, although not in those exact words  My search for 'silver linings' in every cloud philosophy.

I read memoirs quite often because I am interested in how a person negotiates their lives.  The thing I have learned over and over again is that everyone - every single person - has some sort of challenge they need to navigate.  Reading about what others are going through helps put my own life in perspective.

At the end of Fox's book he observes that it takes a village to take care of him, but that he is *also* part of the village.  I think this is something that we need to remember now, more than ever.  That it does take a village, but that we are *all* part of the village.  That we *all* need to take care of each other.  

If this pandemic has taught us anything at all, it's that we need to take care of each other.

Wear the mask if you need to go out.  Maintain physical distance.  Have the vaccine if you can.