Due to my particular wiring and the conditioning around it, my tendency, at any given point, is to look for connections between things and identify patterns. What has come to the forefront of my attention over the course of the last two years is

I D E N T I T Y.

We’ve all found ourselves in the unfortunate position of being forced into identifying with ideology – never a healthy way to develop a sense of self. Identity is a complicated beast, but the more it is forced on us from the top down, the harder it is to maintain a fluid relationship with, and evolve. Therefore, when the walls come tumbling down, as is happening now on many levels of society, we will all go through a period of major identity loss.

There are those who are vehemently for the rollback of mandates and there are those who are vehemently against. Each side looks at the other and doesn’t understand their thinking. And neither side understands to what extent the outcome of the events of the last two years has become more about identity than pretty much anything else.

So let’s be patient with ourselves through this process, and with the other (EXCEPT NO ONE IS ALLOWED TO BE NASTY OR MEAN – let’s maintain our boundaries) and really take a good, hard look, at what the last two years represented. I think it is fair to say that no one is happy with today’s news. For some it’s not enough, for others it’s too little, too late, and noticing the feelings around the announcement are the keys to moving gently into the next stage of whatever is coming for us. I don’t know what that is, but spoiler alert – we’re all going to have even MORE opportunity to notice how desperate we are to be solid in our identities, as we will be given tons more ideology and dogma to attach ourselves to…

Here is a great piece by Mark Manson on the concept of identity loss.