A letter addressed to a future day…

On April 7th 2020, John Prine died from complications of Covid-19. When I heard the news I grieved his death the same as a dead distant friend. I’m almost positive I’ve never shed a tear over someone I’ve never met. It occurred to me that I wasn’t only grieving an admired songwriter but I was grieving the loss of so much more.

Humanity will inevitably permanently shift after this crisis. It’s tough to describe the picture of the aftermath I have in my head, but it balances on a tight rope of pessimistic realism and optimistic opportunism. This picture resonates with the state of our country’s broken system that may shatter under this pressure, as our society’s prosperity tears at its seams. The longevity of our poor and middle class America will be subjected to relying on the communities that surround us and our own self-sufficiency.

Two days ago, what some of us called “our only hope” dropped out of the presidential campaign. Human kind is turning against each other, commandeering PPE that could potentially save many lives and protect our workers who are serving their communities for no other reason but pure empathy.

Empathy, an existent that has faded in many but have come out shining brighter than ever in most. While people spread fear amongst their own communities with false information, supposed “Covid-19 Cures,” and terrorizing actions against people they fear because they simply can not comprehend the situation at large. We all have more questions than we have ever had in our lifetimes but there is no one to answer them. Not our peers, our elders, our so called “leaders” or your Gods. This is the most alone some of you have ever been in your entire lives.

This feeling that is currently rotting in your gut is no strange feeling that weighs heavy in the hearts of millions of refugees, internally displaced, fostered and stateless people across the world. Though this universal turmoil that touches every single life on planet earth in incomparable to any recorded event, but it is fathomable for many people who are consequently displaced by some of our very own actions.

Dear future day, I know you are sitting in a world where my 28th day of quarantine was just the beginning of hardships for my community and world spread human kind. This is just the beginning, I have finally come to terms with this, I hope my community does some day soon too so we can move forward together.

Dear future day, may you bring reflection upon many minds, both great and small. May you inspire aspiring parents to consider adoption, healing their community one child at a time instead of birthing another being into an unforeseeable future of moon mining, droughts and food deserts. May human kind finally understand the ripple effect we have on our earth and start taking care of our planet. May we begin to understand our viable role in the economy and veer from food and other good corporations and shop as local as we can.

And most importantly may we see people for who they really are. May we understand our enemy clearly and stand together through the entirety of this pandemic, the aftermath and our future as a whole. We are in this together, but there are many that aren’t sharing the same ground we stand on. May our enemy burn, so we can grow plants on the ashes of their capitalism and begin a new cycle of life where we are in charge of our own longevity. Dear future day, when I get to finally look back and read this when the air is clear and the ground is still, may I look back in reflection and tell my community, “Y’all are bad to the mothafuckin’ bone.”

Please feel free to write below in a comment of what you would like to see in the future of your community by starting with “Dear Future Day”.