Letting go

I have a memento of a friendship, somehow I accidentally took pool cue chalk from a day with my friend when we played pool. My daughter found it. She wants to try it as chalk on her chalkboard. That was not the meaning for it, it's not a pretty color, but it's not like I'm saving it to chalk my cue. I probably haven't played pool in 5 years. There's a part of me that wants to preserve something for the use it was intended. But my daughter helps me to be flexible. I concede, you can use it however you want my darling.

I'm reading Inverting The Pyramid, about soccer tactics, and it says:

"If there is one thing that distinguishes the coaches who have had success over a prolonged period -Sir Alex Ferguson, Valeriy Lobanovskyi, Bill Shankly, Boris Arkadiev -it is that they have always been able to evolve. Their teams played the game in very different ways, but what they all shared was the clarity of vision to successfully recognise when the time was right to abandon a winning formula and the courage to implement a new one."

Americans are tired of the pandemic. Omicron feels like extra overtime. I was confused and had some anxiety like I had when the vaccine wasn't out, when I hadn't survived getting Covid. I know I can survive it, at least that strain, and I am vaccinated for the love of all beings. Most of the pandemic now is amongst the people who don't get vaccinated. I'm going to keep behaving for them. I've made mistakes. Seems like a mistake to not get vaccinated, I've yet to hear a good reason beyond medical with a real doctor telling you explicitly to not get vaccinated, writing a note. All it exposes is the amount of malarkey in people's brains. No doubt women and minorities are right to distrust the medical establishment. Just not in this case. I try to let go of my anger around this issue. "Live and let live" doesn't seem to cut it for me, because I read about people dying all the time, we're rounding on a million people dying of this. It's too abstract for some people. For some people, it's all too real. My friend lost 4 relatives, makes sure her children are vaccinated. That's just extra excuses for not letting go for me. What I'm letting go of is knowing I'm right, and accepting the reality of what is happening. The pandemic still is going on and there are lots of people for whatever reason who aren't pulling on the oars of the public good. 

There's that apocalyptic sci-fi series The 100. Everyone launches plans that work best if everyone else goes along with it, but nobody goes along with it, launch their own plans that require everyone going along with it. Survive and go for another day, but we want more than survival. If we're all interconnected it does hurt me that others are hurting. This is the task of equanimity, pulling back just enough so you're not scorched by others suffering, but not walking away either. I see it. Trying to let go isn't burying your head in the sand, it's part of a complicated adjustment for equanimity.