Rotary Moment of Reflection – February 9, 2021
Kim Brand, Indianapolis Rotary Club
Winter began December 20th of last year. It added
insult to the injury of COVID and a literal and figurative darkness to the election
that held on like a bad flu.
It was like the Winter of our Discontent.
Hump day was February 3 – we’re better than halfway through
it now. Never mind the single digit forecasts, the days are getting longer – a
couple minutes or more every day – like bookends moving apart to soon make room
for another volume of sun!
Saturday, March 20, 2021 will be the first day of Spring. Foreknowledge
about the angle of the earth with respect to the sun and our orbit gives me
hope in a sort of astronomer-geek way!
I think with this Spring will come hope that a vaccine will
finally flatten the curve – crush it hopefully - of COVID and, whatever else
happens in the political arena, the fever will pass.
Returning too, I hope, will be crowded face to face Rotary
meetings, fairs and farmers markets. I can’t wait for dinners out and to play
with my grandkids at the park. Birthday parties! Going maskless – having to
shave every day again (with a mask on it just didn’t matter.)
And most of all: fewer Zoom calls!
I believe we’ve made it through the worst. We’ll need rebab –
to our embattled health care system and our sense of trust in our political systems
and each other. We’ll get there. Rotary can make a difference. Our
relationships, the things we think, say and do, our mission, will be even more
relevant when we put these twin pandemics behind us.
But most of all our hope – when we recite the pledge today
pay the most attention to the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, ONE NATION
UNDER GOD and know that the sun has always returned to shine bright on our
country and our people – even after the darkness of winter.
