Dancing in the time of Pandemic
The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself falling down a very deep well.
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
Had I the blissful ignorance Alice does, I would feel less anxious about all of this. Although I have always taken pride in my ability to thrive in times of chaos, now — .
Well, now, I am worried that those people I love the most — may not be as confident about things. Perhaps the confidence I have in my own abilities is unfounded. After all, I have never experienced anything like this before, but I have imagined it.
The distinction between falling and flying rests in what we imagine we can do with an experience that is mostly out of our control. Such is life, though. The only difference between the reality of this pandemic and life before it, is that most of the time we imagine we have control over our lives. Have we control, only because we imagine we have it? Maybe.
Of course, different people imagine they have different levels of control, based on where they sit on Rotter’s Locus of Control Scale.
In 1966, noted psychologist, Julian Rotter developed an instrument that measures how we interpret how much control we believe we have over our realities. Based on expectancy theory, it measures one’s orientation toward internal versus external control.
People with internal locus of control believe that their actions lead them to life outcomes, whether they are positive or negative. Whereas, people with an external locus of control believe that their actions do not factor into whether they reach their goals or are denied them. They believe that any rewards they receive are generally due to good luck or bad luck. They also believe that negative circumstances are not under their control. A low score on the Rotter Scale indicates a person believes in internal control (they control their lives mostly), while a high score shows they believe in external control (they do not control their lives).
Why does any of this matter?
It matters, because most of us do not have absolute internal or external loci of control. We tend to rate somewhere in the middle, and depending on various situations, our scores on the scale are different. And, we can change our own score on the scale, which can actually change our realities as well as the realities of other people. And, today, on March 21, 2020, that reality is the difference between life and death for many people.
It matters, because if you (yes, YOU) choose to believe that practicing social distancing is an effective way to control COVID-19, you will likely behave in ways that will slow the spread of the virus. If you think what you do matters, then you will do different things. And, doing different things always affects your life. It always affects the lives of other people, but today the effect is dramatic, to say the least.
So, you may be thinking, John Brown possesses more of an internal locus of control than an external one, right? Is that all I am saying? Just be like, me? Be like, John Brown?
No. I may be arrogant, and I may score a 3 or 4 on Rotter’s Scale, but what I am saying is not that simple. I wish it were.
Whats’ your score on Rotter’s Scale? http://www.psych.uncc.edu/pagoolka/LC.html
What I am saying is that there is a balance we each need to find for ourselves. For example, did I sell off all my stocks? Nope. I did not buy a shit load of toilet paper. I have not thrown up my hands, stopped working my job, run off to rural New England. I have not hoarded food, bought a gun, run up my credit cards more than I need to. There is a time for action, and there is a time for acceptance, and a wise person understands which is called for.
Although many of us are scared, and we may be asking, what’s the point? Why bother? It doesn’t matter what I do. We are all going to become infected anyway?
The wise know that to every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven. It does matter, because even if we have very little control over our lives, we do control some of it, and that little part, matters.
It is time to ask ourselves what season do we want to be in? What do we want to make of this time? What do we want to accept and what do we want to change? Yes, this may be our time to be born, and for others, it may be a time to die, and we may have little control over these events, but that does not mean we ought to give up those things that we do have control over, however small they may be.
If this is a good time to plant, shouldn’t we lay seeds in the earth? If this is a good time to build things up? Shouldn’t we build things up? We will weep, but we can also still laugh. We will mourn, but why can’t we learn to dance, even if we didn’t dance before all of this?
Deep within every problem, lies an opportunity. And, within our pain there is the potential for growth. Sometimes the possible is buried underneath our pessimism or covered by our rigid expectations for reality, but it is always there. We just need to look. And, we need to ask, What is this a good time for?
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace. What does the worker gain from his toil? I have seen the burden God has laid on men. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Ecclesiastes 3, 1–10
This pandemic may be a time for us to refrain from embracing, but that does not mean this is a time to refrain from caring.
We can still go for walks. Maybe you will walk alone or maybe you will walk with someone you know. Maybe you will walk in the woods. Perhaps you will ride a bike, plant a garden, sit on a beach. If you can’t go outside, because you are sick, hopefully someone who cares for you will open a window during the warmest part of the day, just for a little while.
And that is what I mean. Opening a window is an act of faith. It is a moment of compassion. If you believe that, do that, you are moving the needle on the Rotter Scale, moving it toward hope.
If you are walking in the woods tomorrow, and you look for the chance that this situation gives you to do something positive, something good, something different that you have not done before this, something maybe you would not have otherwise done — for yourself or for someone else, then, you are doing more than moving that needle. You are changing the world.
Our own locus of control has a major impact on our lives and the lives of others, especially with regards to how we cope with adversity. We are motivated to take charge of our lives, if we think that taking charge will matter. Let’s all be wise as we weep, as we mourn and as we build things up. Let’s dance, even if we didn’t dance before, even if we didn’t plan to dance, even if we were never taught to dance during a pandemic.