This past week a monstrous winter storm engulfed and encroached upon Texas’s people and power grid. Without power and running water for days, Texans at large and at heart were shook by the reality that Mother Nature remains a force unlike any other. As we learned of the devastation that took place, we saw the best and worst of humanity.
The worst being the immediate accusations and politicization of this humanitarian crisis about “who is to blame” and the best being the work of people near and far to help one another. I am always amazed at the amount of helpers that show up, and how quickly people mobilize to send food, water, clothes etc.
When we show up for each other, we give ourselves a glimpse of what we could be if we truly wanted to. If we acknowledged each other’s humanity at all times, and not just when destruction has ravaged a part of us, then maybe the collective “WE” could be a part of the solution to our country’s challenges rather than part of the problem. Some believe this to be too simplistic a view but the over-complicating we have done has certainly gotten us nowhere.
Weather phenomenons like what happened in Texas illuminate for us AGAIN that we are all in this life together. We don’t have to like it, but the reality is that we are at the mercy of one another. We are connected. We may need to “fake it til you make it” to steer the discourse back to civility, but so be it. It’s a notion whose time has long since come, and I hope WE finally embrace it and embark on the road less traveled: the one that leads us back to each other.
Such Pretty Faces 