I don’t want to go back. No.
Oh, sure, there are the places —
hangouts, happy hours, a new
restaurant here and there and

some great traveling with my
wife — some with the Lab along
in the pretty little camper, some
catching a plane to an anniver-

sary destination. I still get to ride
a bike and go for a trail jog, watch
rerun after rerun of NCIS New
Orleans trying to keep track of

the changing characters from
season to season and great
homemade meals and experi-
menting with new gourmet

recipes and more time than
ever for reading. But I don’t
want to go back after a vaccine
is discovered and we all get a

shot to go with the flu shot and
the pneumonia shot but I don’t
want to go back to those viruses
we knew about while we were

living in denial along with Moses
— “Social and spiritual viruses
like racism, white supremacy,
human supremacy, Christian

supremacy, any kind of hostility
that is spread, based on prejudice
and fear.” Jesus, Buddha, Lao Tzu,
we all need a spiritual shot in the

arm to arm us against the prin-
cipalities and powers lurking in
the darkest places of the human
heart.

*idea and quote from a meditation
by Brian McLaren at Richard Rohr’s
Daily Meditation