Apple has a new television ad that features a meteor hitting the Earth. The meteor is forged by heat into metal and then turned into a phone.
For the record, I did not run out and upgrade my IPhone 12.
I did, however, feel a slight tinge in my neck and back. That’s where I have several titanium screws and bracket in my body. Yes, I am a modern day Six-Million-Dollar Man thanks to years of pounding, sitting and then hitting my head into a door jam. We can repair him. We can make him better than before.
(Oscar Golding sends his regards.)
The last two years have beat the living crap out of me. But I am still standing and I am stronger than I was before. Like the meteor, I’ve been forged after taking a pretty big blow.
We all have.
Recently I was talking to a friend. He’s a teacher and leads a large group of kids in a school-sponsored club. He was talking about how there less seniors engaged in anything this year. They dropped out when the pandemic hit and never came back. Two things can be true: We needed to protect ourselves and others from the awful deaths caused by COVID and we also we also need to realize that there were costs associated with it, too. It’s not just kids. We all are walking around with unpacked trauma.
How do we unpack it? I’m not a clinical psychologist nor have I slept in an Holiday Inn last night. But thinking about what my teacher friend said, we really need to rebuild and stress healthy communities. Whether it is joining service clubs, attending church, volunteering, or getting to know our neighbors, we need each other. We need to be around those who are different than we are but have things in common. Like the titanium in my spine, that’s what will help us heal as we recover.
