Yet, in the midst of this very understandable need to mask ourselves, I’m here to affirm that 2020 is a time to UNMASK ourselves! Embrace the blessings and burdens that unmasking reveals!

Is the pandemic the reason you feel stuck? Or did your feeling stuck begin before we were asked to shelter-in-place?

This debate gets heated when our own sense of “essence” is challenged, even indirectly.

But recently, I’ve seen how the “butterfly effect” impacts us both spiritually and scientifically.

The health crisis is testing not just our ability, but our willingness to keep our physical distance from other persons even while we reach out to support other people.

In my skeptical moments, of which there are far too many in recent times, I ask myself and others: Is my/your religion a tie that binds or blinds? Human history shows, time and again, that religion’s rhythm too easily flows between binding ties and blinding ties.