Reverend Billy’s Revelations
Dear Billy,
I want to swipe right on Tinder again. I want to go out dancing at a crowded bar with friends. I want to sit in a packed movie theater again. I want to go to a protest where it doesn’t feel like I’m in a hospital ward where everyone is standing 6 feet apart and wearing medical masks. It’s been a year. I want to live my full life again. Please don’t guilt me for that. I bet you do too.
JESS
Bed-Stuy
Jess,
Your letter looks like: “I want I want I want I want I want….”
Look, Jess. Our leadership at this time in history is the Movement for Black Lives, #metoo and the Women’s March, LGBTQ and Gender Rights, and Standing Rock and the fight for the Earth. From the Black body to water is sacred — these movements all have in common the demand for health and safety.
And now everyone is changing. If we used to get drunk and party a lot — now we can change. Desire is no longer the same thing as liberty. That’s what Republicans think. They have mask-burnings to celebrate their freedom. The infection spikes come straight from their “liberty.”
Now we desire a full life for everyone, and our individual cravings are no longer the first item. I’m from the Church of Stop Shopping, so let me preach that the consumerism of scratch-that-itch has trained us to ignore the larger good. We concentrate on ME.
….want want want want want…
The CDC has recently given fully vaccinated people permission to hug, bump and grind, and generally carry on — without masks. Here’s your chance, Jess! You are probably at the local watering hole as I write.
My parting advice: In the UK, what we call the “advice column” is called the “agony column.” Jess, you’re in agony over the disappearance of the crowded bar but you’ll have more agony the next time some desire is denied. Let that agony go, Amen? Come to the really HOT party. Let’s dance to the music of Justice For All!
REV
• • •
Rev Billy,
Do you think I should get vaccinated? I don’t want to get really sick or die from Covid. But, I also don’t trust the government.
DELIA
Woodside
Delia! Delia!
Get vaccinated, Delia! I refer you to the advice to Jess above. Your first emotion is not the last word. Mistrust the government on your own time. You need to be your own government now, in the sense that you govern your own actions, enforce the law yourself. Getting vaccinated is about other people too. We get vaccinated so that together we have a chance. Delia, and your readers too — Get Vaccinated Now!
I want I want I want I want I want….
REV
REVEREND BILLY IS PASTOR OF THE CHURCH OF STOP SHOPPING. HAVE A QUESTION FOR THE REVEREND? JUST EMAIL REVBILLY@INDYPENDENT.ORG AND UNBURDEN YOUR SOUL.
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