I keep looking for a decent response to our corona virus that is not just medical, not political. Strangely this sentence comes to my mind. “In a dark time the eye begins to see.” These words by the poet Theodore Roethke derive from his battle with mental illness.
If you get stuck in a dark scary space, they remind us, the eye can slowly open up, adapt, to its contours. So what does this figure of speech say? Adversity, even the severe sort, can open up your vision, your understanding.
We know our adversity. Health care workers surely do, and those whose paychecks have stopped coming, and those whose schooling is unsure. And we know the adversary—but just a little.