What? I thought I was pretty smart when it came to our food chain. That’s why I am basically a vegetarian. According to John C. Moore in his March 2014 TED-Ed lesson and video Dead stuff the secret ingredient in our food chain less than ten per-cent of the food in the natural food chain, is eaten while it is alive. Ninety percent of the food in the chain is what looks dead. Moore points out that what looks dead, really is not. Dirt is loaded with microorganisms busy at work developing the building blocks for the new life that will spring from their efforts. Wow!

The above revelation got me thinking that maybe just like my food chain being 90% death, maybe my life chain is 90% dirt or what a good friend pointed out to me is grief over letting go. I don’t like to grieve any more than I like to think about death. Today’s COVID-19 experience however is forcing me to do a lot of grieving my old way of doing things, and facing the near possibility of my and my loved ones own nearness to death. So I let go of my old ways of doing things and I now wear a mask when I’m in public, wash my hands when I come in and social distance while I’m out.  

Maybe this COVID-19 is really not death so much as a natural part of life. On the positive side, it seems to have brought the world together in a search for a vaccine and an eventual cure. That in itself is no minor accomplishment. It has also made me, and I suspect you as well, spend much more time at home. That’s a good thing and I suspect challenging for many. It could also serve as the subject for a whole new post. 

Posted by Dan O’Donnell, a layman who has covenanted with the Chicago Community of Passionist Partners. In addition to the standard covenant, Dan promises to work at connecting all partners known and unknown, to a conscious following the the way of Jesus, the way of the cross which Dan believes transforms all failure, democratizing the human journey