Lately, the opening lines from a Wordsworth poem keep running through my mind -- “The world is too much with us; late and soon, Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers…” This reflects my state-of-mind since Inauguration Day. So many things are happening so fast, it’s hard to let worries go, even for a moment, to re-connect to nature, our center, or our foundations.
When I was young, my parents dragged us to historical landmarks up and down the East Coast. The Statue of Liberty, the Liberty Bell, the Kennedy Space Station, and everywhere in between. In fact, we were touring the Space Station the day Apollo 11 landed on the moon. My brother and I felt like we were part of the mission ourselves! During the summer of ‘76, we celebrated the country’s bicentennial in Washington, DC, with thousands of other proud citizens around us.
Could anyone have ever imagined that just half a century after that celebration, pride in our country and its leaders would dip so low, so quickly, for so many? Folks may feel like their heads are spinning as each new day brings new edicts and new executive orders that threaten the beliefs and institutions that made America the “destination country” it had become.
While we may feel overwhelmed and helpless as political machinations turn, Wordsworth’s wisdom is still relevant. We need to let ourselves temporarily let go of the worries and weight of the world, connect to nature, find our centers, and center ourselves among the people we care about and who care about us.
I’m Suzanne Degges-White and that’s my perspective.
