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As 鈥淚 have a dream鈥� is Martin Luther King鈥檚 immortal phrase, so 鈥淚 can鈥檛 breathe鈥� is George Floyd鈥檚.聽聽Both are gifts to the world.聽聽The first speaks to the aspiration of the human spirit, the second to its crushing.

鈥淚 can鈥檛 breathe鈥� has become the rallying cry against racial injustice.聽聽But its relevance is wider and deeper than that.聽聽It addresses the multiple sets of fundamental crossroads at which humanity has recently arrived.聽聽It addresses the briar patch of predicaments that have ensnared us prior to and during 2020, this pandemic year of clearing skies and symbolically perfect vision. 聽

鈥淚 can鈥檛 breathe鈥澛爌ertains to COVID-19.聽聽Ventilators that give some of the infected a chance of surviving are a primary symbol of the virus.聽聽鈥淚 can鈥檛 breathe鈥� pertains as well to inequality.聽聽The disadvantaged receive limited access to life鈥檚 necessities and opportunities.聽聽And 鈥淚 can鈥檛 breathe鈥� pertains to pollution, smog, and climate change, to the chokehold we have put on the spinning, blue planet that sustains us.

Our myopia and baser instincts have imperilled us.聽聽They have brought us to a standstill at some crossroads while we cautiously make our way forward at others.

Science and technology will undoubtedly have to play an important part if we are to save ourselves.聽聽Happily, a vaccine for COVID-19 may only be months rather than years away.

Equally encouraging is the unprecedented clarity, consensus, and political will, and the consequent steps toward racial justice, sparked by George Floyd鈥檚 very public and up-close lynching.聽聽But similar movement, let alone momentum, has yet to emerge on the social inequality and climate change fronts.

While it is unnerving to remain stuck when the implications are so dire, and it is counter-intuitive to embrace contemplation in the face of urgency, that is what we are being called to do during the profound pregnant pause the pandemic has imposed upon us.聽聽Circumstances are inviting us to gestate, as consciously as we can, the world we want for ourselves and for future generations.

What we need even more than science and technology is a holistic and unifying vision developed through the magnification of spirit, as in humanity鈥檚 willingness to take a knee for what is best for Mother Earth and all its inhabitants.聽聽We need a rebirth of reverence.聽聽Life is sacred, and despite all its messy complexity, it needs to be treated as such.

We need, individually and collectively鈥攎eaning our institutions, and especially our governments鈥攖o enable emergence by fostering internal and external conversations on both our preferred future and the big issues it must encompass.

Age-old wisdom to 鈥渟leep on it鈥濃�攖o go within鈥攖o see what inspiration might arise during the metaphoric night is, paradoxically, calling us to action.聽聽We are challenged to 鈥渄ream big鈥� and to follow-through with discernment and all due deliberation lest we find ourselves facing increasingly nightmarish scenarios.

Put another way, we need to tap into our creative inner selves, to make the inner journey of heart and soul, and to transmute what we find into a decidedly better world.聽聽In his 1978 bestseller,聽The Road Less Traveled, psychiatrist M. Scott Peck wrote that 鈥渢he unconscious manifests itself and speaks to us鈥� in a variety of ways.聽聽He maintained 鈥渙ur unconscious is wiser than we are about everything.鈥漑1]

Leonard Cohen understood this.聽聽As he used to say, in an observation worthy of innumerable creatives and expressed in different ways by many of them: 鈥淚f I knew where the good poems and songs came from, I鈥檇 go there more often.鈥� 聽

Although our circumstances look a lot like humanity鈥檚 dark night of the soul, the crossroads confronting us are also a great opportunity.聽聽It is an invitation to partner with spirit or the Muse or whatever you wish to call the Generative Mystery of life.聽聽Given our deeply pregnant times, it behooves us to seek the best that is within us.聽聽How else are we going to find the cracks that let the light in?

An historian in Victoria, he has an abiding interest in grace and the mystic.聽聽He is the author of 鈥淓tty Hillesum鈥檚 spiritual transformation during the Holocaust,鈥� available on his web site:聽

You can read more articles on our interfaith blog, Spiritually Speaking, HERE

Photo of demonstrator by聽听辞苍听Unsplash