When we got lost

The year 2020 will be many things. But most of all it may be the year that we all remember as, “the year we got lost.”

There are always points in history when things plummet. When we hit rock bottom and we only have one way to go: up.

In the past six months our country has lived through so much. But more than just living as we typically have, we have experienced living with time to notice.

We noticed how little time we actually have with our kids. We noticed what we really value. We noticed the simple things we took for granted. We noticed that even the smallest of choices have ripple effects for others. We noticed that friends whom we adore could be fundamentally oppositional to our own core values. We noticed that we haven’t yet achieved universal Internet access. We noticed that we don’t have feedback loops. And we unfortunately noticed that adults (as well as kids) need anti-bullying lessons.

If Covid has given us one gift, it is that of noticing.

Albeit national health risks or racial conflict, we often hear the current moment being compared to the times of the Civil War. Some authors are describing these two moments as the only in our nation’s history where we had so much uncertainty.

When I ran across this quote the other day it sparked something. Why? Because through our collective noticing we have also demonstrated a true weakness. We have forgotten we have a role to play in service.

We want to be heard and we want to be served; Individually rather than collectively. We want to get not give, have not work, push not pull. We want to have our demands met with pressure rather than productive contribution.

It’s easy to sit behind a keyboard and complain. It is easy to throw stones and make demands. It is easy to shout your wants and needs and rights. It is easy to fall prey to the needs of your moment instead of the moment of the many.

It is not easy to dig in and do the work. It is not easy to have the hard conversations with decision makers. It is not easy to step back in order to step forward stronger. It is not easy to work outside of systems to get the results we want.

When Covid first hit, myself and a group of national educational leaders discussed our…