The marvel of a new day is it offers a blank page on which to write the future, but it does not erase the events of the past. A new day offers a choice: Continue on the same path, or change direction; linger on the past or look to the future.
Our future is undeniably built on the foundation of our past, but our tomorrows need not be identical to our yesterdays. Each new day is created from a mix of circumstances we can’t control and conscious choices we make.
So where are we going with all this philosophizing?
Good question. In short: Last week was awful. Let’s make this week better.
Last week saw some of the highest spikes in COVID cases and related deaths across the country. It also saw a record breaking 46 deaths in 24 hours in West Virginia. And, of course, last Wednesday’s riot at the Capitol will leave a permanent scar on the American psyche; there’s no doubt about it. And the fallout — arrests, deaths, criminal charges, possible impeachment — will continue to dominate the news for a while to come. We won’t be able to escape it. Not completely, at least. That’s something we can’t control.
But we can control how and to what extent we engage. Having a conversation where we can civilly challenge each other’s stances is good. Being an internet troll and raging at internet trolls are not. Keeping up with new developments is good; our democracy requires an informed public. Doomscrolling and submerging oneself in the same talking points being repeated over and over again are not. (This applies to both politics and COVID coverage.) Immersing ourselves in bad news can drown us in despair and lead us to believe nothing can change. While we cannot change what happened in the past, we can influence what happens next.
We can make choices to create a better day.
- We can hold ourselves accountable for our mistakes, accept the consequences for our actions and then do better.
- We can hold each other accountable and encourage each other to be better.
- We can show respect and kindness to the people we encounter.
- We can allow ourselves to be flexible — to work around the circumstances we cannot control — even as we hold firm in our morals and values.
This is where our new day and our blank page comes in. We bring the wisdom of yesterday and our hope for tomorrow as we write today’s story and do our best to make it a better one.
