Subtitle: A personal assessment about judgment
For two years, we have lived under a global coronavirus cloud. These days, in the United States, the rates of infection, hospitalization, and death are declining. Nevertheless, America leads the world in the total number of cases and is approaching 1 million lives lost in death. Regarding vaccination rates, 76% of the population has received at least one dose, 64%, two doses, and 28%, a booster dose.[1] I am in this last group; a two-dose + booster person.
Throughout the past two years, from time to time, I have contemplated the ongoing arguments – some political, some personal (either or both, largely, involving testaments to individual liberty over governmental interference), still others, medical – of those who are unpersuaded by the slogan “vaccination is your best shot.” And I have followed manifold stories of those who, refusing vaccination, suffered higher rates of infection, transmission, and death.
Throughout, I have chosen to make no judgment about us, whether unvaccinated or not. For our choices, whatever they are, reflect a constant reality: We, as individuals, in the face of external circumstance, are called to discern what is our truth, and then to decide, to act in some fashion consistent with what we believe to be true, and then to encounter and deal with the fruits and the consequences of our choices.
Throughout, I have circumnavigated countless arguments with others about what is right and wrong, good and bad, wise and foolish. Even more, I have avoided that ineffectual ploy of comparing myself with others so to bolster my sense of rightness, goodness, or wisdom. Still more, I have retained an essential inner equilibrium, being at peace with myself and my choices; hence, able to remain responsible (able to respond with kindly attentiveness) to others irrespective of their choices.
© 2022 PRA
[1] https://usafacts.org/visualizations/covid-vaccine-tracker-states/
occasional observations of mind and heart, soul and spirit 