I drove around Oxford a bit last weekend. The weather was amazing and I have a convertible again. It was a great ride. While most people were not out and about, I still saw a few. They were working in their yards, sitting outside restaurants to deliver orders, and eating frozen yogurt on the Square as a family. I\u2019ve talked to friends and read their Facebook posts exalting the time they\u2019ve had with loved ones, the rediscovery of simplicity, and the renewed appreciation for life and health. Laid over a template of a deadly disease, it makes no sense\u2015at first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tA closer look reveals an understanding of what is most important in this world. Disasters and tragedies that knock us to our knees offer us a great opportunity. When most of the things that usually occupy our time and demand our attention are put aside with no end in sight, we have to figure out what we\u2019re going to do and, more importantly, who and how we are going to be. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tNone of us knows where COVID-19 will take us. Most projections aren\u2019t encouraging. But that doesn\u2019t mean we\u2019re helpless, and it doesn\u2019t mean that all our social isolation is a prison. The Coronavirus is offering us something other than fear and death. It\u2019s offering us a chance to put our best foot forward. It\u2019s offering us a chance to look outside ourselves to the needs of others. It\u2019s offering us a chance to realign our priorities, to love, to create, and to be grateful for our many, many blessings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tI\u2019ve said it before, and I\u2019ll say it again: the most powerful force in the universe is love. This pandemic is a call to the most meaningful parts of life\u2015love and kindness and kinship. It is a call away from judgment and selfishness, to acceptance and harmony. It is a call to better relationships with ourselves, our families, our pets, our friends, our Higher Power, our planet, and our entire cosmos. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tEven our isolation and social distancing are acts of love and caring, as we do what we can to protect ourselves and others. Practicing patience at grocery stores, the post office, and drug stores are acts of love and kindness. Encouraging words, prayers, and speaking out for what\u2019s good for all show care and concern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tWe are being challenged, but each and every one of us has the power to meet that challenge. That doesn\u2019t mean that everything\u2019s going to be alright. It isn\u2019t. People are dying and will continue to do so, but our choice is in how we meet this challenge. Let us meet it with love that is both tender and fierce. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As I drove around town I couldn\u2019t help but think of Louis Armstrong\u2019s recording of the George Douglas and Bob Thiele song, \u201cWonderful World.\u201d In the film Good Morning, Viet Nam<\/em>, starring Robin Williams, Armstrong\u2019s recording of \u201cWonderful World\u201d was played over a montage of heinous acts of war\u2015dumping agent orange on people, dropping bombs, and the like. The cognitive dissonance abounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \tAs that song played in my head today, I couldn\u2019t help but have some cognitive dissonance myself, because of the disease we are fighting and the beauty of what I was witnessing. With apologies to Douglas and Thiele, I offer these additional lyrics to their classic, \u201cWonderful World\u201d:<\/p>\n\n\n\n . . . and that\u2019s the view from The Balcony. I drove around Oxford a bit last weekend. The weather was amazing and I have a convertible again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":262,"featured_media":39753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11902],"tags":[10286,10878,16154],"class_list":["post-85891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-randy-weeks","tag-randy-weeks","tag-the-view-from-the-balcony","tag-what-a-wonderful-world"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/2017-5-11-View-from-the-Balcony.jpg?fit=600%2C400&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}I see families in their yards,
working so hard,
down on their knees
planting flowers and trees,
and I think to myself,
What a wonderful world!
I see people lending hands,
across this land.
People unite
to get through the night,
and I think to myself,
What a wonderful world!
No one knows what tomorrow holds,
so, we live for today.
But as long as there\u2019s love
in our hearts and our hands,
we\u2019ll climb that hill.
I know we will.
I see mothers and dads,
lasses and lads,
loving each other
more than they ever have,
and I think to myself,
What a wonderful world!
And I think to myself,
What a wonderful world!<\/em><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"