Making Sense of “Dual-ing” Realities, Part One
A “Thinking Vaccine” for a Broken World
How I’m processing my grief about the anti/vaccine madness
The Covid pandemic is causing a “psychic split” that’s dividing society. It is as though there are two realities. And when you have loved ones who live in a different “reality” from your own, it’s particularly confounding and frustrating. Since I’ve been through a version of this before (thanks to the “dual-ing realities” of the 2016 US presidential election) you’d think I know how to navigate the discord. Instead, I’m learning how to tolerate my own disquiet.
I have long believed that — like a bird — humanity cannot fly unless it has both wings: a fitting metaphor for our often-bifurcated society. But lately, I’ve been wondering whether I missed the memo declaring that our species is more of the ostrich variety!
This conundrum messes with my preferred mindset of hopefulness: that we humans are evolving, realizing our interconnectedness, becoming better. It has gotten a lot harder for me to remain optimistic during this pandemic-driven divisiveness. And the latest not-always-civil “war” regarding vaccines has put me in a state of grieving, which presents in non-linear stages:
