Eric C. Nixon
The Path Less Traveled: What we will always need in order for there to be capacity for change.
I used to live nearby the 606 or Bloomingdale Trail where I went running most of the time, and ever since I moved to the North Center Neighborhood, I decided to get up early the morning of 7/19/2020 and run further to visit my old stomping grounds. I had noticed upon entry and throughout the path that there were signs from the Chicago Government Department of Public Health saying to wear a facemask. Which didn’t come as a surprise to me, since it’s an enclosed public space, on an elevated platform accessed via ramp, which spans 2.7 miles bridging over inner city streets at level with the tops of houses. What came to me as a surprise was something later, which was a more subtle detail: I was the only person wearing a facemask.
Besides 2 people. There was one couple I passed, who had masks on.
Now at this point you may think, “People not wearing a facemask is not a surprise”. And you’re be entitled to your own opinion about human nature. But the message I received runs deeper.
There is a recognized authority, in this case, the local government, who is requesting an action to make. But instead it’s serving the purpose of adding to the background aesthetic. Because that’s why signs were put there. Everyone did their job, we can all go home now.
Rather than concluding this was the way things were, I knew something was amiss. I felt a disconnection. I can make it right. I have awareness. I can close the gap.
When a governing body asserts its will, there is always a response, or else there is no order. Isn’t no order the same as chaos?
When there is no control, then the government is powerless during a global health emergency.
So every person I passed on the 606, I kindly and politely told them to wear a mask, and I was firm in my disposition. Because I told it to the first person, I was accountable to be a role model for everyone not wearing a facemask, in order to be consistent with what I believe. Therefore, I told everyone. So I told 30 people to wear a mask. Some I even told again as I was passing them again, and saw they were still on the trail not wearing a mask. I didn’t notice any one challenging me with the amount of people I told. Some people pouted at first. I noticed in other’s eyes a look of honor for taking the reins.
Note that there was another couple, who I happened to come upon as they entered the trail, who were the most receptive. They actually turned around to go grab their masks. One of them responded with something like, “Oh, it’s the rule, I didn’t know.” which I met with compassion. After reflecting on this, I realized they were the only people who encountered me first before seeing the rest of the trail. They used social subcontext of the environment around them to determine what actions to take.
When I run, I move in a forward motion. Most times, I have a destination in mind. There is a reason why I run, and I achieve that reason. What I saw on the 606 was a broken, perpetual cycle of inability. It’s as if nothing existed. There is no progress, and there is no time. People communicate nonverbally. And what they were telling me was, “You don’t have to follow the rules all the time”. Then the question was glaringly apparent of “If we don’t follow the signs, what’s the purpose of them?”
I felt that, even though people at the 606 were running, they weren’t really going anywhere.
To believe, 'There is nothing more I can do' is the epitome of learned helplessness in context to the pandemic. It’s that mindset that enables that reality in a collective lens, and it only becomes that way because people believe it. We can simply flip that around. If everyone were to believe that they can make a difference, then it can literally becomes that way.
I know that we all have to work together in order to successfully eradicate this pandemic. That’s why I act as if everyone does the same thing.
“Always define whatever it is we perceive--to trace its outline--so we can see what it really is:its substance. Stripped bare. As a whole. Unmodified. And to call it by its name--the thing itself and its components to which it will eventually return. Nothing is so conductive to spiritual growth as this capacity for logical and accurate analysis of everything that happens to us” —Marcus Aurelius