COVID’s Spiritual Fatigue
When you look up “COVID fatigue” online you discover that it is the symptom of this pandemic that causes a dull tired feeling for 2-3 weeks after the other more severe symptoms subside. Some people can even suffer from a brain fog that lasts for weeks or months while they linger in a semi-recovered state that feels nothing like normal.
Most of us shudder at this condition and wonder how we’d cope. Sometimes we say an extra prayer for people who suffer from prolonged illness while we fervently hope we don’t have to walk that long lonesome valley ourselves.
But COVID fatigue is also a more general symptom in our society. You see it in people who refuse to wear a mask because masking reminds them that we still are not out of danger. We see it in everyone who is sick and tired of months of public health restrictions. You see it in parents who want their kids in school no matter what . You also see it in parents who have decided to keep kids home because they are too anxious about the uncertainty of sneding them. You see it in everyone who wants this whole episode in human history to be behind us and never thought of again.
Those are all signs of Society’s COVID Fatigue. One hundred years ago, after two years of the Spanish Flu pandemic, where a third of the world’s population had become infected ( 500 million) in four waves of the illness, people in every land just passionately wanted the pandemic to be over. So, they quickly plunged into the Roaring 20’s.
Yet in the aftermath of an experience that had killed so many millions in every land you have to wonder whether the best way to heal from such widespread trauma was really to learn to dance the Charleston. I realize that we would all dearly love to put this pandemic behind us. But even when we attain a place of relative public health safety, we still will have a lot of work to do to find lasting emotional and spiritual healing. We still will have to address our cultural Spiritual COVID Fatigue?
All faiths teach that the worst times carry the deepest spiritual lessons. As I continue this blog I will try to explore and unpack some of those lessons and see if we can think about the pearls of wisdom nestled in this oyster. I welcome your ideas and questions about how to heal our nation and world. What has changed that cannot be put back the way it was before? What are the lessons we need
to learn from this experience?
Postpandemicchurch@gmail.com - send me your questions and ideas.