Crabapples and Coronavirus

The crabapple trees have passed their peak here in the Temple garden. The extravagance of white blossoms is giving way to equally miraculous but more ordinary looking green leaves. Soon, their glory days will be behind them and they will hide through the summer as unremarkable trees of medium size.

Spring’s extravagant bloom passes to the slower work and pleasure of summer.

This late May morning, as the social constraints of the pandemic are beginning to loosen, I wonder if the bloom of Covid has come and gone? Experts disagree and politicians use scraps of information to construct a banquet of questionable projections. Yet each one of us has to make important decisions for ourselves and those we love.

Governors are allowing, state by state, the reopening of certain businesses and allowing the re-gathering of certain groups. Interestingly, beauty salons and churches are at the top of many of the lists. And we here at Boundless Way Temple are beginning to think about when it might be safe to gather again in person for Zen meditation. (Though some of us with very short hair remain unconcerned about visits to the barber.)

No one says the virus is gone. People are still coming down with the virus and people are still dying at an alarming rate. In some places, the rates infection, hospitalization and death are holding steady or diminishing. In others, rates are still rising. But it all depends on where you look and how you measure.

When is it safe to go out? When is it safe to come together? Is it now enough to have the windows open and masks on? The future course of the virus is still closely dependent on our individual and collective behaviors. Some of us are still sheltering in place. Some of us are having our close friends over for drinks and dinner.

A recent poll here in Massachusetts found that nearly 80% of respondents report that they are maintaining social distancing behaviors strictly. These same people also reported that only 25% of the people around them were doing the same. Both of these observations cannot be true at the same time. We humans are irreparably biased. The obvious truth of our observation is likely to wildly influenced by our hopes, histories and fantasies.

Yet we have to make our best choices. We should all be careful to read (and watch) widely and to check the inevitable biases of our sources. Being provisional in our pronouncements and being diligent in looking for new data will serve us well. It might also help us be more accurate in our speech and actions as well.

But the crabapple trees are not bothered by their fame or their obscurity. They stay firmly grounded in the season of the moment. Blossoms and birds come and go without regret as the nascent fruit of the unimaginable fall begins its slow swelling toward fullness.

Personal Practice – Be aware today of how your opinion is shaped as much by your previous opinions as it is by what you are encountering in the moment. Notice the emotions that arise unbidden when you consider certain people and situations. Don’t try to change anything, just see if you can perceive and appreciate whatever is arising in the infinite interplay between perception, thought and feeling.