We can get through this – together.
I care about you.
You are not alone.
As Winston Churchill famously said, “If you’re going through hell, keep going.”
“Through” is a critically important way to think about our current predicament with Covid19, and the other pandemics of economic hardship, racial injustice, and climate crisis.
Doris Kearns Goodwin, the historian, reflected on studying periods of great challenge after we knew how they turned out. The World Wars, The Depression: we now know from our current vantage point how they were resolved.
But during those extremely trying times, the people going through those enormous sacrifices, struggles, and suffering had to just endure with courage and keep going.
In many hymns and songs, the word “through” is often emphasized. In “Amazing Grace,” the third verse reads, “Through many dangers, toils, and fears, I have already come; ‘tis grace that brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.” And in Aretha Franklin’s stellar version in the movie Amazing Grace, she repeats and repeats “through” in that verse, underlining all that African Americans have persevered through.
In “Precious Lord, Take My Hand” the refrain includes, “through the storm, through the night, lead me on to the light, take my hand, precious Lord, lead me home.”
“You’ll Never Walk Alone” starts, “When you walk through the storm keep your head up high…”
And of course, the 23rd Psalm reads, “Yea, though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, I fear no evil, for Thou art with me.”
We will get through this together.
Have courage and keep going.