This past week brought the intersection of two events for me.  One was the Jewish New Year, a holiday when we’re encouraged to reflect on our previous year and make commitments to do better in the year ahead.  The other was a trip to spend time with my brother and his family, who I had not seen for over two years due to Covid.  The combination of these two profound experiences got me thinking about how clear we can see our priorities when we have the time to think about them, but how very hard it is to keep them in our focus in the day to day.

To be honest, and I’m sure I’m not alone in this, I’m always surprised by how many of my Jewish New Year vows to do better are similar to the ones I made the year before.  “Really?  Am I really working on that same thing again?”  But the answer is usually “yes, yes I am.”  For a while I’m good at being aware and motivated to make my changes.  I journal about it and notice it in my day to day.  But over time, without fail, it tends to slip into the background, until it seems like I rediscover it all over again as a new awareness that’s merely a recycle of the old ones.  

In seeing my brother after so long, it reminded me of the lessons I discovered during the pandemic about the value of time with my family, of slowing down and focusing on what really mattered to me, of voting and protesting, of noticing the effects of income inequality and climate change. But with the frustration of the effects of the delta variant and the eagerness for life to get back to “normal” again, I fear I’m already forgetting what seemed like the life changing lessons I’d learned. So much was taken away from us so suddenly, the silver lining in it all was a chance to see what really mattered. But the silver lining is already fading into the background and I’m afraid I’m losing the clarity in vision that was provided by the terrible events of a deadly pandemic.

I recently read an article by the writer Julio Vincent Gambuto on Medium that echoed my concern and really inspired me.  Apparently I’m very late to the game, as 20 million readers made his article viral back in 2020, which he followed up with two other thoughtful articles in response.  In his first article, Prepare for the Ultimate Gaslighting, Gambuto coins the term “The Great Pause” and describes it as an amazing gift given to us all.  He writes:  What the crisis has given us is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see ourselves and our country in the plainest of views.  At no other time, ever in our history, have we gotten the opportunity to see what would happen if the world simply stopped.  Here it is.  We’re in it.  Stores are closed.  Restaurants are empty.  Streets and six lane highways are barren.  Even the planet itself is rattling less (true story).  And because it is rarer than rare, it has brought to light all of the beautiful and painful truths of how we live.  Gambuto reflects on the goodness of people, helping each other, caring for eachother, standing in long lines to vote, protesting the effects of systemic racism and the effects of inadequate health care for all.  He describes the Great Pause as a vision of the possibilities that were revealed to us when we have the benefit of time.  And what he warns against is not only losing the view we were gifted as we go back to our busy lives, but even worse, the political and corporate efforts that will go to great lengths to not only distract us from our new truths, but seek to make us forget.

It is comforting to go back to normal.  The truths revealed during the last year were disturbing and took our time and our attention into uncomfortable places.  But just like the Jewish New Year offers me an opportunity each year to reset and refocus on my intended values, I hope we all can find a way to hold on to the profound revelations gained from a traumatic year.  Gambuto implores us to recast ourselves as citizens, not just consumers.  He advises us to think deeply about what we do with our time and our money.  What we click on, what we purchase, what we watch, all has reverberations for our culture and our personal lives.  He invites us to carefully choose what we put back in our lives.  It is our chance to define a new version of normal, “a rare and truly sacred (yes, sacred) opportunity to get rid of the bullshit and to only bring back what works for us, what makes our lives richer, what makes our kids happier, what makes us truly proud.”  

Perhaps we can each consider a way to schedule A Great Pause on a regular basis.  For me, the Jewish New Year is an annual time out to consider these truths.  But what if I did more than just reflect.  What if I unsubscribed from all my automatic emails and advertising and carefully chose which ones to re-engage with.  What if I reviewed my calendar and more carefully scheduled what reflected my values in how I use my time.  Perhaps I could be a better more empowered consumer and citizen by paying more attention to what I allow myself to be pulled into.  There is a great desire for our attention.  It is, in fact, a commodity sold to companies and political movements.  What if I made them more accountable for their content and required them to be more truthful in their reporting, less divisive in their rhetoric, and more accountable to their environmental impact?  We, as citizens have this power.  In fact, the truth is, I don’t even need A Great Pause, just a few second pause, to make better choices each and every day.  I just need to remember not to forget.