Reopening

Over the past few weeks, it has been all talk of “reopening.” I feel the collective itch to “get back to normal.” I understand why; it is an anticipated response after such an abrupt shuttering of our lives, after sweatpants and sourdough start to lose their novel sheen. 

I hesitate. In Gemini, we enter the season of the social, of exchange of words and ideas in the airwaves, of zipping and zooming in real life. Yet it is no “normal” Gemini season, and there is no normal left to be had. With only test-trace-isolate plans that are patchy at best, collective delusion that we must get back to work, and hyped promises of vaccines, personally, I feel that we are not ready to “reopen” -- at least not in ways that make stuttering attempts to replicate ways of living that no longer apply.

In true Gemini fashion, we must adapt to the moment and learn our way forward. And we can use the power of this season to do so.

During this season, we have the power to put all of our ideas on the table to reimagine our economy and means of exchange. We have the power to get curious about models of collective care, mutual aid, and universal basic income, reflect on what we buy and who we support with our dollars, and practice redistributing our wealth especially to those who need it most. We have the power to call out our collective abundance and model new forms of exchange that provide for everyone’s human needs. 

During this season, we have the power to learn as much as we can about how to keep each other safe and review everything that we have learned about the coronavirus itself. We have the power to consume a myriad of perspectives, reflect critically on oversimplified statements and politicized rhetoric, and understand that no information is ever 100% static, right, or true. We have the power to inquire and build our knowledge as an iterative and evolving process -- and while our knowledge may not be perfect, we can orient our learning towards understanding what it takes to truly take care of each other.

During this season, we have the power to get really clear on what we value. We have the power to share and discuss what our actions are worth to us and investigate their potential impact on others. What is a shopping trip, a birthday outing, a haircut worth to you? What value do you place on your health, the health of your family, the health of the people you come in contact with, and the health of their parents, partners, siblings, and children? We have the power to see our interconnection and reassess how our actions reverberate beyond our individual selves.

It has been all talk of “reopening.” Whenever I hear it spoken of in the media, I can’t help but hear it for what it is -- an urgent call to reopen the status quo, a crooning melody to reopen practices that exploit the most vulnerable, and a seductive whisper to reopen the belief that wealth should trump wellness. In Gemini, the reopening that we must do is ideological. We must reopen our minds, mouths, and hearts to declare that the old normals never worked, and to demand something different.