Reconnecting in the Time of COVID

To what do we feel connected?  Of all the specifics that make up our daily rhythms and life realities, which do we connect to in a direct way.  So much of the world that directly impacts us, is distant to us; the clothes made in a country we've never visited, purchased with a click and shipped to our doors, the out of season produce on our local grocery store shelves, grown in far off places by people we do not know.  The heat, water, and electricity we so often take for granted, but notice acutely when the switch does not deliver as it should. The technological component of our current "normal" is so distant it is virtual.  Currency exchanges with virtual money, relationships via media outlets with friends we scarcely really know. Of the truly necessary elements for day to day survival, which are we directly connected to providing for ourselves and our loved ones? 

Modernity has not changed the necessities of life, just how they are acquired.  For most, gone are the days of sewing clothes, growing food staples, chopping firewood for heating homes and cooking meals, gathering water from the well, and felling trees to build a home.  This life was hard.  Work days were not bound by a clock on the wall but by the seasons and the natural light of both the sun and the moon.  Our forebears did not take vacations, go to the gym or binge their favorite sitcom. Life had a simplicity to it one might say, yet it was filled with purpose and meaning, and because of it, I can not help but think that people were grateful, appreciative, and happy.  

Amazing things have come in modernity, but not without a cost. What we have gained in luxuries, comforts, and relative ease provided to us by our modern world we have lost in our connectedness to the Earth, Nature, and its seasons. We have lost any direct line between our work and expenditure of energy and our essential necessities for life- water, shelter, warmth, and food.  We have surrendered a bit of our life's sovereignty and placed hope and faith in a system we have no direct connection to, a system that is bound to break down. A paradigm shift is needed, a realization many were shocked into by the insecurity felt as the supply chain of vital needs was shaken and disrupted during this pandemic and world wide shut down.  Food, medicine, culture, education, and even social connection have been and continue to be halted, slowed, and altered. 

Since long before this stunned awakening, Otto Specht School has provided a curriculum that reconnects. Our school has been promoting outdoor experiences, nature based education and intergenerational community exposure since its inception. As the cornerstones of the school's mission, OSS has been cultivating the awareness, capacities and knowledge base needed today to answer the questions of tomorrow. Our students have the horticultural and animal husbandry skills the populace is now rushing to gain. The student body has the empathy and experience to work together with all the varied individuals in the world.  In a time of separation, fear, and anger, there is a great bright and beautiful light of hope- our students.