Change and choice

To the Editor:

Irene Peter said, “Just because everything is different doesn't mean everything has changed”. Change is a choice, a conscious decision to experience a different attitude or belief or behavior. We have all been changed by a pandemic; but will we choose to change more deeply how we relate with each other – all of us – or how we consume resources or share our good fortune as human beings in this country?

Social psychologist Stanley Milgram says, “The most far reaching consequence of submission to authority is the loss of responsibility”. I'm not suggesting we don't wear masks or watch our distance; I am asking for the critical thinking that informs our intuition and common sense to be responsible for ourselves. Healthcare is literally “care for health”. Who knows better than you what you need to be healthy, really? We tend to give our power away and then live in fear of thinking we don't know what to do and so become dependent on forces outside ourselves. As we take care of ourselves, we will naturally take care of others – it's human nature.

Albert Einstein said, “The mind is a faithful servant and the intuition a sacred gift. We have created a society than honors the servant and has forgotten the gift”. With our constant quest for more information, more data (proof) and the media deluge of so many opinions, we have forgotten that we can know what is best for us, each individually. And if we would stop trying to tell other people what they should do or what's “best” (according to us), we might relax into our intuition and discover a simple sanity that could just possibly save the world.

Hoyt Cory Soulsbyville