'Real life?' We're deep in the middle of it

Over the weekend, Kansas City Star sports columnist Vahe Gregorgian, did this interesting piece about how the new KC Royals manager, Mike Matheny, is approaching this forced time off caused by the virus pandemic.

In it Vahe used what I thought was an odd and misplaced phrase. He said that Matheny was "waiting for not simply a suspended season to begin but the resumption of real life."

Well, we all know what Vahe meant, I think.

But let's not kid ourselves. Friends, this is real life. This pandemic. This isolation. This oddness. This vulnerability. This virtual connectivity.

In fact, I don't know how it could get more real. We are being challenged in so many ways that will reveal what kind of people we are and whether we have moral centers.

My friend Rabbi Mark Levin wrote this good column in the same Sunday newspaper in which the Gregorian piece appeared, and in it Mark called us to act humanely in this crisis, to think of others even as we naturally try to protect ourselves.

"I am taken," he wrote, "with the religious response: Not what is the threat, but how do I react?"

Exactly.

This is when we draw from the lessons that our faith traditions have been trying to teach us: Love one another, be your brother's keeper, be channels of God's grace, God was serious about the Ten Commandments. And on and on.

How are you doing with all of that? Like you, I find it hard to be on point all the time while staying at home and away from others. But there are things you and I can do. People we can call to check on. Humor we can spread to lighten our loads.

Because this is real life. Every minute of every hour of every day. So let's rise to the challenge of acknowledging that and acting in redemptive ways.

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THESE MONKS KNOW HOW TO HELP

Sometimes monks get accused of trying to escape real life by secluding themselves in community and silence. But that's usually an unfair charge. In any case, cheers for the Iowa monks described in this RNS story. They're making wooden caskets for families who need them because of the virus pandemic.