Day 7: Do we love hope, or do we love certainty?

Liminal dispatch, 03.26.20

So speak encouraging words to one another. Build up hope so you’ll all be together in this, no one left out, no one left behind. I know you’re already doing this; just keep on doing it. (1 Thessalonians 5:11, MSG)

When faced with something we honestly cannot comprehend, something we have no frame of reference for, we have a few options.

Ideally, we get good information, do what we can, ask for help when we need it, improvise where we need to, and circle around our communities in solidarity and service. Honestly, this is what I witness most people doing most of the time.

Less often, but certainly more noticeable, are the reactions that occur on the extremes: catastrophizing and denialism.

Much has been made of toilet paper hoarders, though they represent a tiny fraction of people’s response to the pandemic.

And though perhaps a greater percentage of folks are turning to denialism as a coping mechanism — which includes spiritual bypassing and forced optimism as well as refusing to believe sound science — I think denialism still represents a minority of people.

Here’s a strange thing: though catastrophizing and denialism seem in some ways like total opposites, spiritually they have the…