Ah, yes, the (white) American way: thinking of myself as an individual with rights, entitled to do whatever I want to do whenever I want to do it—not as a person embedded in community who has obligations to others and might ever make choices that center care for others. 1/x https://twitter.com/jenniferjjacobs/status/1329054216208478209

I added the parentheses because this assumption of entitlement has not ever been extended to POC, who are not entitled, evidently, to buy Skittles while wearing a hoodie or play with a toy gun or fail to signal before a lane change or speak Spanish in public or wear a turban or

But the assumption that it’s an oppressive ask to not have people spread a deadly and debilitating illness (and yes, home gatherings do) is all of the most toxic strains of American individualism come to roost. https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/11/12/covid-social-gatherings/

The pandemic actually shows painfully, viscerally that we ARE interconnected, we DO impact one another, our choices DO affect other people. We are not sovereign islands. We are embedded in a great web, and what I choose now can influence whether you live or die.

There’s a notion that comes from Lurianic Kabbalah that God contracted Godself to make room for the world to be created. (Tzimtzum.) Sometimes we need to intentionally limit ourselves to make space for other things to come into being. Like health. Safety. Care for others.

The next 6 weeks (& beyond) would be a great time to practice tzimtzum, to gain the spiritual benefit of learning that our WANTS, our GRATIFICATION don’t need to reign all the time. That there’s value to learning to limit our own sense of entitlement to care for those around us.

And yes, if we actually took care for one another seriously we would make sure everyone had health care (a human right!) and not leave everyone to the vicissitudes of the American capitalist system. https://twitter.com/ukseennotseen/status/1329073151314063362