One of my favorite Thomas Merton quotes begins, “My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me.” That’s certainly true now in this global pandemic. What should I be doing? How much distance do I put between me and the virus. Am I washing my hands enough. Have I touched a surface where the virus is living? I did my best to avoid people today and that took on a different walking route than I have been on in a number of years.
Today I found myself walking along the railroad tracks in our village. These tracks were once a part of the Pennsylvania Rail Road. Now the tracks are part of the Western New York and Pennsylvania Rail Road. There’s the main north and south track and a siding which today was occupied by tanker cars. Looking south the tracks approached the horizon and invited me to think of what lay beyond.
What does lay beyond this present moment that we are living in? The world is already different than it was just thirty days ago. We are living in a way that none of us have every lived before. Will this be the new normal? I dare say we will never return to what was.
My Dad told me that when he was a boy in the 1930’s the King and Queen of England came through Franklinville on this road bed. I’m sure the tracks have been replaced since then. If these tracks could talk what would they say.