Last week, while out doing my socially distanced and masked and gloved errands, I encountered a masked friend. We exchanged greetings and said we’d both been well and healthy. Then we hugged with our faces turned away from each other.
I hugged her hard and she hugged me back just as hard. I could feel her scapula and back muscles against my hands and I could feel her hands and forearms across my upper back. We let go – and stepped back, clasping (gloved) hands briefly before parting ways.
I walked away. And then something softened. My ears fell away from my shoulders where they’ve been clamped tightly and rigidly since this whole thing began. My diaphragm softened. I took a deeper breath than I had in a long time.
The value of a hug and human connection cannot be underestimated as we struggle through this pandemic. I’m a Type A person, a rule follower, but I hugged someone outside of my immediate family. I hugged Kim and I’m better for it.
Something similar happened last weekend when 100-some community members gathered on Saturday, June 6, to declare shared values on the issue of systemic racism, social injustice and police brutality.
People wore masks and spaced themselves out appropriately and took a knee for 8 minutes, 47 seconds, the length of time police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on George Floyd’s neck, several minutes after Floyd was found to have no pulse.
The local protestors walked from the parking lot of Waitsfield United Church of Christ to space themselves out along Main Street in Waitsfield where they held their signs in the rain as drivers honked and offered cheers of support.
For many, church is as much about congregating and sharing community with people who share the same values as it is about worshipping. For our community members to be able to gather to express shared values is, in a way, similar. It’s also an expression of community and love, much like the hug I shared earlier that week.
I hope all participants felt their diaphragm soften and were able to take a deeper breath afterward.
