Most doctors, psychologists and even many Biblical scholars recognize the difference between “healing” and “curing,” though we don’t often make the distinction. I have been pondering if it would be a helpful distinction to make for this pandemic.
Curing, writes Dr. Jessica Schrader in Psychology Today, “means eliminating all evidence of disease.” Healing, on the other hand, is about “becoming whole.” Two different things. A person with a terminal illness by definition cannot be cured, but they can be healed. Curing is primarily physical whereas healing is more psychological, spiritual and social.
There is a reason why we speak of Jesus as a “healer” rather than a “curer.” Many of the healing stories do involve cures: A paralytic who walks again or a blind man who can see again. Paralysis and blindness, however, can be more than physical. In the Gospel of Mark Jesus speaks of his fate while on the way to Jerusalem and each time his disciples fail to understand. Just before he begins that journey he restores the sight of a blind man and then at the other end before he enters Jerusalem he does it again. In other words, on either side of those three predictions of his death that seem incomprehensible to those closest to him, he heals two strangers of their blindness. Coincidence of his itinerary or commentary by Mark? Those twin cures of a physical condition raise the question of a spiritual one—just who is it that really needs to be healed of their “blindness?”
Being able to walk or see does not necessarily make one “whole.” Becoming whole requires much more than physical health. Leprosy in biblical times was not only a physical condition, it was also a social status. One could be cured of their skin disease but would still be required to live in a leper colony until judged to be “clean” by the religious authorities. Hence healing of a leper by Jesus was not complete until the leper’s social status was restored.
Healing by its very nature often involves social conditions. The fundamental question for healing is, what does it mean to be whole? Tom Hanks portrays a man diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in the movie Philadelphia. A promising young lawyer, he is fired on a pretext after the senior partners discover his diagnosis. Throughout the movie, the predominant issue is not his declining physical health, but his diminished social status. In illnesses like HIV/AIDS, healing is not about removing evidence of the disease as much as it is about removing the social stigma.
Making a similar distinction between “disease” (a biological malfunction) and “illness” (the way we perceive and respond to a disease), John Dominic Crossan invites us to consider “the difference between curing the disease or healing the illness known as AIDS. A cure for the disease is absolutely desirable, but in its absence, we can still heal the illness by refusing to ostracize those who have it, by empathizing with their anguish, and be enveloping their sufferings with both respect and love.” (Jesus, A Revolutionary Biography, p. 81). In Philadelphia, healing for Hanks’ character comes not through a medical cure, but a legal judgement rendered as he lay on his death bed against the firm that fired him.
So what if we apply this understanding of “healing” to the corona virus? In our effort to fight this pandemic, could it be that we have focused primarily on the cure without enough consideration of what it means to be healed? It was perhaps necessary and understandable given the threat of the virus that we did everything we could to “flatten the curve” while waiting for science and pharmaceutical companies to come up with a cure. The ultimate cure of course for a potentially deadly virus is an effective vaccine. With such a cure now at hand, I would like to suggest that it is time to think about how we restore wholeness to our society, that is, healing.
Healing after a pandemic is not about returning to life as normal. The “new normal,” as our family called that time after the violent death of our mother, was not the same as life before. The disruption caused by this pandemic—the cancellation of so many critical life events, a full year of empty school buildings, the shut down of so many businesses, the change in so many work habits, and the thousands upon thousands of premature deaths, plus the threat that a future variant may render the current vaccines impotent—means there will be no return to the old normal. The question before us now is, how do we build a new normal that will bring about the healing to our society that we so desperately need in this time?
A few weeks back the Oregon Health Authority released some statistics on deaths in our state in 2020. Not surprisingly, the number of deaths were significantly up over previous years, especially among the elderly. Contrary to early concerns that social isolation was causing increased death by suicide, that turned out to not be the case. What was surprising was the higher death rate for those with Alzheimer’s. The Center for Disease Control says 42,000 more people died in the U.S. from Alzheimer’s and other dementias in 2020 than the average for the previous five years, an increase of 16 percent. No, it was not due to COVID, at least not directly. So why was 2020 such a bad year for people with Alzheimer’s? Could it be that limiting visitation, if allowed at all, to protect these vulnerable people actually accelerated their decline? Perhaps other causes will be found for this unexplained anomaly, but we already know that lack of human interaction can be very detrimental for those with declining cognitive abilities. It seems more than plausible, therefore, that well intended efforts by loving caregivers to protect Alzheimer’s patients from the virus turned out to be just as deadly as COVID. And that is just one indicator of the impact of the pandemic on public health.
Researchers of all kinds will undoubtedly be studying this impact on society for years to come. In the meantime, can we learn from our own experience and the knowledge we already have to determine what is needed for healing? For any measure of wholeness to return, to whatever extent such may have existed in our society before the pandemic, we will have to re-emerge like cicadas from our self-imposed or government-mandated hibernation. And just as the time for cicadas has come, I would argue so has ours, though perhaps more slowly and carefully than those peculiar Arthropoda of the insect world.
I do not mean to sound like the Lieutenant Governor of Texas who suggested at the beginning of the pandemic that senior citizens should be willing to risk their health to keep the economy going. Rather I am asking if the benefit for public health from rolling back the restrictions is not now greater than the risks. How many other lives will be lost or seriously harmed by good intentions that may be short-sighted? (Or is my view short-sighted? Only time will tell.)
CDC has determined that those of us who are vaccinated can safely gather again without masks, indoors or out. This came as a surprise because we had been told that the vaccine did not necessarily protect one from getting the virus, it only protected you from getting COVID, or at least from getting a severe case of the disease. It turns out that as the evidence came in, scientists realized that in fact, not only do the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines greatly reduce the risk of getting COVID, even if you do pick up the virus, they reduce it to levels so low that the risk of spreading it is also very low. Hence, the benefits of wearing a mask for most people, if you are vaccinated, are no longer so great and the costs of doing so may now be greater.
Case in point. I have a mild hearing loss which fortunately can be offset with hearing aids. Early on in the pandemic, however, I discovered that even with the benefit of that technology, masks accentuated my slight disability. The combination of the muffled sound and not being able to see lips made it harder for me on many occasions to understand what someone was saying or who was speaking to me. On more than one occasion I gave up watching a broadcast online because the combination of a masked speaker and insufficient volume made it too difficult for me to follow. It was frustrating but also a small “aha” experience for me. So this is what it feels like to be unintentionally left out due to a disability. I understood the good intentions of the speaker but felt disregarded just the same. I accepted that loss as a necessary and fortunately small sacrifice for the greater good. The benefit of the mask outweighed the small cost for me.
We wore masks in spite of all the issues with them not to protect our own health, but to protect each other lest we be unknowingly infected. But if you are vaccinated, wearing a mask is no longer about protecting that other person, now you wear it simply because we cannot trust that those who have not been vaccinated will wear their’s if we are not wearing ours. So now I must wear a mask not to protect that other person from the virus I might be carrying, I must wear it to protect that person from a virus that another unvaccinated person might be carrying. Thus I am not wearing the mask to protect them from me, I am wearing it to protect them from themselves. But should I? Which best promotes healing in this new context, mask on or mask off? (Why am I having flashbacks of Karate Kid all of a sudden?)
I welcome the opportunity to be unmasked in a group once again, but not just for the ease of hearing. Healing, being restored to wholeness, is about so much more than hearing. To be able to see facial expressions, shake a hand or hug someone will do much more for healing a pandemic-injured psyche than a vaccine.
Before we move too quickly, however, we have to read the fine print. For the medically vulnerable, wearing a mask is still advisable, vaccinated or not. In large crowds, especially indoors and on public transit, wearing a mask is still a very good idea. (Also will curtail the spread of many other viruses.) And there are those who for a variety of reasons cannot be vaccinated (their numbers are small) or are willing but have not yet had easy access to the vaccine. I am glad to continue to wear my mask for their sake. The biggest exception, however, is the most problematic, those who refuse to get vaccinated because they don’t trust the science or they have bought into the many conspiracy theories. So now businesses are thrust into the role of either being “vaccine police” in order to allow people to forego their mask or continuing to require all of us to keep our mask on. Note that using the honor system is not permitted by the State of Oregon. When indoors, either you verify that people have the vaccine or the mask stays on. Frankly, we cannot trust that those who are unvaccinated will voluntarily wear their masks while the vaccinated do not. And so I suspect most in Oregon will choose to keep the mask requirement in place as few businesses will want to check your vaccine card at the front door.
For healing to occur in our society, however, we must learn to build that kind of trust, and given the level of distrust in our society right now, that is a very tall order. It is not surprising that so many of those who distrust the vaccine also distrust the results of the last election. Did the former President create that distrust or did he merely he exploit it? Perhaps a little of both. The shameful way in which the GOP has catered to his lies and replaced Rep. Cheney with someone willing to sell her soul to the political devil, bodes very poorly for the future of democracy in this country. Whether we are talking political divisions or pandemic delusions, healing requires a certain level of trust and such is a scarce commodity in the public square these days.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa taught us the way to build trust is by first telling the truth. Only then can reconciliation or healing come. In this country we are seeing just the opposite as some are already trying to rewrite the history of January 6th. Those were not “insurrectionists” storming the Capitol, they were just “tourists”. It wasn’t Trump supporters who did all the carnage, but Antifa. (Seriously?) Perhaps the most brazen of boldfaced lies told this last week were two by Rep. McCarthy, the would be Speaker, who had the audacity to say that “unlike the left, we embrace free speech and debate” while announcing the vote to replace Rep. Cheney for engaging in free speech and debate. And even more shocking was his most recent claim that he didn’t think anybody was questioning the presidential election. Evidently the pseudo audit happening right now in Arizona is because they are questioning the election of the county dog catcher. Uh, yeah, that’s it.
It used to be that truth was the first casualty of war. Now it is the first casualty of elections. Yes there have been lots of lies over the years on both sides of the aisle, but this is something fundamentally different. Under the guise of protecting the integrity of elections, certain leaders of the GOP are doing the exact opposite and threatening the very basis of democracy. God bless those like Liz Cheney and the Board of Supervisors in Maricopa County in Arizona (all Republicans save one) who are still willing to stand up for the truth.
So while the distrust about the election and the vaccines continues to fester beneath the surface like a new virus variant, not to mention all the distrust right now around issues of race and policing, how can we promote the healing of our nation and the restoration of trust? On the national level many things are needed—protection of voting rights (the John Lewis Voting Rights Act would be a good place to start!), curtailing the influence of money in elections, modifying the Electoral College so that it more closely follows the electoral vote (www.nationalpopularvote.com), and reform (not completely abolish) the filibuster rules in the Senate—just to name a few.
Ultimately though trust has to be built in local communities from the ground up. That brings me back to masks. We built trust in this community by masking up, maybe now the time has come, or will soon, to take those masks off—to trust that we are not a threat to one another any more, that we no longer have to be afraid of this virus. We have been saying all year, “trust the science.” Well now the science says that we can go without masks in most situations outdoors and in almost any situation with others who are vaccinated. I don’t know that I am ready to trust all the shoppers at Costco to be honest about whether they can go unmasked, so I support the continuation of the mask rule for such public venues, but I am willing to trust those I know to be honest with me. Show those vaccination cards if need be, but I think the time is here to start at least those small gatherings again, in social groups, churches, clubs and classrooms. CDC says even choirs for vaccinated people are OK. Start small, keep an eye on the virus data and slowly build up to larger gatherings. Invite someone who has been vaccinated over to dinner, or better yet, to a restaurant to help that business rebuild. Include someone with a different perspective from your own. Show that we are willing to trust at least those we know about the vaccine and build on that. If I trust Joe and Joe trusts Susie, then maybe I can trust Susie, too. If we can’t trust the people we know, then we certainly will never be able to trust those we don’t.
Yes there will be some awkward moments when you ask someone if they have been vaccinated before inviting them to join you. Be inquisitive, not judgmental. Engage in honest dialogue. As Stephen Covey taught us in Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, seek to understand before you are understood. Don’t worry if they are not persuaded to join the vaccinated club, but leave the door open. You never know who might enter. You don’t want to endanger a friendship over it, but you also shouldn’t forego a mask to keep it. Just remember what Jesus said, “Where two or three are gathered together, wear a mask if you are not vaccinated, otherwise go without!” (The Gospel of Covidius)
Gathering without masks of course will not bring healing on its own, but it’s a start and we have to start somewhere. So for the sake of healing, where possible I think we should open the doors of churches and schools, salons and clubs, concert halls and theaters and check those vaccination cards. If you are vaccinated, sit without fear next to the unvaccinated person wearing a mask. Don’t treat them like a leper, treat them as Jesus would and seek to remove any stigma associated with the vaccine. The more we do that, the more we will build trust and likely overcome much of the resistance to vaccination. Then healing can begin. I am ready. Are you?
Definitely ready!