By Lee Ruggles
Intuition, as defined by Psychology Today, is a form of knowledge that appears in consciousness without obvious deliberation. It is not magical but rather a faculty in which hunches are generated by the unconscious mind rapidly sifting through past experience and cumulative knowledge. It can also be defined as a feeling, an inkling, or a sense of foreboding. It’s not something that can be defined by a mathematical or scientific formula.
What you see is what you get. Mmm. Don’t be too sure. The beautiful apple may be rotten at its core. The overripe banana may be delicately sweet within its rotting peel. That caveat applies to people as well.
I have been told that I make excuses for people’s behavior. I see more than that, especially during these unpredictable times. I see rigidity and an unwillingness to change. Flexibility isn’t part of their persona. I let that go. I just listen. Sometimes that’s all they need.
Just one year ago our world was normal. We went to work. Children were off to summer camp. Vacations were somewhere away from our homes. Manicures and pedicures, haircuts, a day at a spa ….. normal. Over the years we had read the news of wars and pestilence and epidemics in other countries separated from ours by thousands of miles of ocean. Not our problem. Flexibility meant that if we couldn’t get a reservation at that new posh restaurant, we had choices of others. Not a big deal.
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There have always been generational differences. Pre – World War II was an era that had just come through the financial disaster of the 1920’s. For most of our country frugality was the name of the game. “Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.”
Post WWll was a boom time for so many. A collective sigh of relief embraced our population here in the USA. The dark clouds of future conflicts were lurking, unnoticed, on the horizon. In the meantime, our country blossomed. I didn’t learn of one of the darkest ‘secrets’ until I was well into adulthood: the internment of Japanese citizens in this country – taken from their homes and forced to live in camps. As I see it, the moral character of our land of freedom had failed.
July 2020 – our world is far from ‘normal.’ The New Normal has become a cliché, overused, becoming more and more meaningless. My sense of what others are experiencing is far from on target. What I see are neighbors walking their dogs, saying ‘good morning’ or ‘how are you?’ We’re a small cluster of homes with little or no traffic. Social distancing is the norm. So few are outdoors that we don’t wear masks unless we’re going beyond our boundaries. My intuition tells me that, although all look reasonably content, there are worries beyond the obvious fear of the unknown. Some will share their concerns; most will not.
Hopefully, we’re developing stronger resolution and character as we hunker down, put some soup on the stove, and use our intuition to do our best in the days ahead.
