"We are not used to this kind of collective grief in the air."
On Wednesday of this week Bruce Stedman, the ED of the Conway School, Graduate Program in Sustainable Landscape Design + Planning, of which I am a proud trustee, sent this brief note to the staff, faculty, trustees and the class of 2020: "Please read this. It resonates with me very strongly, because so much of it reminds me of how I felt after my wife Ellie died in 2000. I think it will help all of us to consider what he is saying."
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"We’re feeling a number of different griefs. We feel the world has changed, and it has. We know this is temporary, but it doesn’t feel that way, and we realize things will be different. Just as going to the airport is forever different from how it was before 9/11, things will change and this is the point at which they changed. The loss of normalcy; the fear of economic toll; the loss of connection. This is hitting us and we’re grieving. Collectively. We are not used to this kind of collective grief in the air."
You're right, Bruce. We are experiencing collective grief, and it does help to name it. Thank you.
Article: That Discomfort You're Feeling is Grief