The Covid-19 Pandemic has taken its toll, with the death rate still rising. Now, it appears that social distancing will likely be a part of our lives, at least to some degree, for the foreseeable future.
It’s not been a pleasant adjustment. Frustration is mounting over mandates to keep our distance. Just ask the Texas Park Ranger who, this past week, was shoved into the water at Lake Austin, Texas, while attempting to enforce social distancing. Then talk to the New York City police force, where they’ve issued social distancing summons to over 50 people, and where officers have had to use stun guns to subdue belligerent resistors to the mandate. And don’t forget Maryland, a state where Covid-19 cases continue to climb, yet dozens have been protesting in parking lots, demanding a return to business as usual. In Michigan, hundreds poured into the state capitol, some with assault rifles, holding signs that said, “Please Open Up Michigan.”
As tensions continue to escalate, I’m reminded of something a seminary professor of mine said in our practical theology class, one bright, spring day. After one student had shared the turmoil that had been brewing in his church, and another had talked of barely surviving a church split, and still another confessed to enduring a church business meeting where members had almost come to blows, the professor spoke from his years of experience.
Shaking his head in dismay, looking out the window, almost like it was a soliloquy, he muttered, “What most angry Baptists need is a good night’s sleep.”
Which is to say, so much of what agitates us, in churches, as well as in society, is spurred by our physiological needs.
Many people are on the edge as a result of the current crisis, because we are social beings who require social interaction. The fact is, while social distancing reduces the spread of the coronavirus, it also increases anxiety, irritability, and frustration. Like the coronavirus itself, isolation is a silent, insidious, and devasting foe.
We are all different. Some of us are classic introverts, while others are typical extroverts. Some are genuinely happiest with other people and others when they are alone. Most of us are somewhere in between. But we all need socialization—some just more than others.
Instead of sleep as an antidote, (Though through the years, I’ve found much truth in the professor’s comment) consider the simple walk as a powerful corrective to the pent-up aggression that is threatening to spill into various sectors of our society.
Taking a walk won’t restart our economy or conquer Covid-19, but here’s what walking can do for you: reconnect you with nature; help boost your immune system; reduce stress and anxiety; provide socialization, if you walk with another person; and even improve sleep.
You really don’t have to talk in order to experience a heightened awareness with your surroundings or walking companion.
C. S. Lewis, himself an avid walker, observed: “The only friend to walk with is one who so exactly shares your taste for each mood of the countryside that a glance, a halt, or at most a nudge, is enough to assure us that the pleasure is shared.”
If you are a runner, keep running, but try a change of pace, every now and then, and take a walk. If you are inactive, try walking, if only to the mailbox. Just don’ t stop there. Set a goal to make it to the end of the block, and then eventually, take in a nature walk.
The point is, we can’t change the craziness we see and hear on the news. But we can change our reaction. Instead of stressing, make yourself get off that couch, turn off the TV, and get out for a walk.
You might be surprised what taking a walk can do for you, especially those times when you don’t walk alone. As author, Lynda Meyers, put it, “I could walk a mile in your shoes, but I already know they’re just as uncomfortable as mine. Let’s walk next to each other instead…”
Walking next to our nearest and dearest may not be a panacea to the social ills that seem to be plaguing us, but at least it could be a good start within us, where real change begins.