The Great Upheaval

by Marilyn Moore

Deep beneath the surface of the Earth are tectonic plates, foundational structures of the planet.  They’re always moving slightly, adjusting to one another along the fault line where one plate meets another.  But every now and then, a slip occurs, a plate is caught, and shock waves are sent through the miles of the planet to its surface, and the earth quakes.

Earthquakes are not a common occurrence here in the middle of the country, though they do happen, usually on a small scale. But in many places around the world, both on land and on water, they are frequent, frequent enough that earthquake warnings are issued, and building codes are adapted to earthquakes, and people living in earthquake-prone areas accept them as one of the hazards (like tornadoes and blizzards for Nebraskans) of their chosen home. 

Earthquakes range in level of severity.  Many times, the resulting earthquake results in damage as minor as broken dishes.  Sometimes, it’s much more major, like the earthquake of 1989 that hit just as game three of the World Series was about to begin in Candlestick Park in San Francisco.  That earthquake brought down the Bay Bridge, and 67 people died.  The tsunami of 2004, an earthquake in the middle of the Indian Ocean, resulted in the death of more than 200,000 people in 14 countries.  On a much larger geologic scale, an earthquake about 10 million years ago resulted in the formation of the Tetons, and earlier than that, the formation of the Himalayas. 

Lots of science, lots of physics, lots of geology….bottom line, there are times that the tectonic plates beneath us shudder, and the earth heaves, and the planet is forever changed.  Those plates do not settle back into the same position as before the shudder and the resulting quake. 

I have come to think of this pandemic time as The Great Upheaval.  Foundational plates to our society (think of healthcare, commerce, education, entertainment, families, religious organizations, government, among others) have been disrupted by a microscopic virus, and the resulting shock wave has caused our society to quake.  While it may not be a quake of the magnitude that formed the Tetons or the Himalayas, it is certainly larger than a broken teacup.  And just like the tectonic plates after an earthquake, I suspect our foundational plates will not return to their “before the upheaval” state. 

A significant observation for me is that these foundational plates are all connected.  Just as the Pacific Plate can’t move without impacting the North American plate, the institution of health care can’t shudder without affecting other plates.  When public health (that is, for the benefit of the health of all of us) demands that we stay home as much as possible and limit contact with others, and a resulting decision is that schools close, families are affected, and businesses are affected because parents need to be home with children.  Because people aren’t going out, entertainment venues and service industries have no customers, and millions of people become unemployed.  This pandemic has perhaps been the best ever living-right-in-the-middle-of-it example of our connectedness with one another….a tremor in one system eventually ripples through all the systems.

Earthquakes have a way of making visible small cracks and crevices that might have previously been unknown.  That’s happened in The Great Upheaval, too.  We know that a shockingly high percentage of those who are stricken by and killed by the coronavirus are persons of color.  Those who have the disease and are hospitalized are more likely to be persons with low incomes, persons without access to a regular primary care physician.  Children who live in lower-income families without access to the internet were less likely to be engaged in remote learning, as were children who live in homes without a stable adult presence.  Emergency needs for food and shelter exploded overnight in this community that had an unemployment rate of around 3% just three months ago.  We have seen in long lines at Food Bank distributions just how “on the edge” so many of our neighbors are.  Mental health professionals are very worried about the long-term impact of isolation, worry, and anxiety for children and adults alike, knowing that finding affordable and available mental health services is a challenge at all times, and especially as the need grows.  It has become clear that “kids in school” is the safety net for many children, for breakfast and lunch, for a safe and supervised day, for teachers and counselors and principals who notice a child who is ill or a child who is depressed or a child who is abused – and who know how to alert other systems in the school and the community to respond.

We’re all figuring out what the new normal will be, when a vaccine has been developed and/or a reliable and effective treatment plan has been tested.  Our new normal will most likely not be the same...and that reality is a growing edge for each of us, room to stretch, room to create, room to see and do differently.  Houses of worship will continue to have an online presence, which engages people who are seeking spiritual growth but who choose not to enter a building.  K-12 schools and institutions of higher education will build online learning into their strategic plans.  Individual employees and businesses have learned what work can be done at home…and what really can’t.    All of us have had time to think about what activities we will "add back" when the restrictions are lifted; for many, it's likely to not be the same list as before.  And I suspect that for years to come, we will all be more conscious of washing our hands, and not touching our face. 

I hope that as a nation we hold in even higher regard the scientists, the researchers, the epidemiologists, the virologists, the public health leaders, those who invest their professional lifetimes in the study of diseases and how to identify, contain, and stop them from spreading.  I hope we are more watchful of what happens in other communities, other states, and other countries, because as we have learned from The Great Upheaval, viruses do not know boundaries.  And I hope that we hang on to our new understanding of “essential employee,” knowing that many of them have been invisible to us in the past, but they are the workers that assure that we have food daily and that other basic needs are met. 

I hope that when we are able to gather again, at places of work, places of worship, places of learning, family picnics, graduations and weddings and funerals, concerts and ball fields, that we do so with profound joy and gratitude at the simple gift of being in community....because it is in the connections that we find meaning, substance, energy, and life itself.

A final note about the 1989 earthquake, in which the Bay Bridge collapsed.  It collapsed not because it was not strong enough, but because it was too rigid.  It couldn’t bend, it couldn’t shift, it couldn’t adjust.  A pretty fine metaphor for what we will need to be able to do as we emerge from The Great Upheaval….