“Where Do We Go From Here”

We are probably all asking the question in these stay-at-home and social distancing days, “Where do we go from here.”  NY Governor Cuomo says we can’t  go back to where or how we were.  We must reimagine the world and make it a new and better one based on what we’ve learned in this terrible pandemic.  President Trump says we will go back to where we were and it will be even better and greater than it was before.  Where do we go from here?

The question is always there, lurking in the deep caverns of our minds. It emerges whenever times get tough, when life tumbles in on us in all its myriad ways.  The loss of a loved one begs the question.  The sudden diagnosis of cancer, or Parkinson or Alzheimer’s disease will bring it forth.  Where do we go from here?  

Jim Reeves sang:  “Where do I go from here? / What fate is drawing near?”  The first question leads into the second question, into the unknown, into the tomorrows we cannot yet see, into whatever will be will be: “What fate is drawing near?” Reeves’ sings on,  “Through the grace of God alone / I’ll cast aside these fears I’ve known / And lift myself from / The depths of deep despair.” / … / Give me strength that I might find / Abiding faith and peace of mind / And I won’t ask / Where do I go from here?” We all yearn for that grace, for that strength, for that abiding faith and peace of mind so we won’t have to ask ever again, “Where do I go from here?”  But the question never seems to go away for the “here,” the “moment,” the “situation” reappears with each new and passing day.

Disney’s Pocahontas sings, “So many voices ringing in my ear / Which is the voice that I was meant to hear? / How will I know? / Where do I go from here? / … / The path ahead’s so hard to see / It winds and bends but where it ends / Depends on only me.”  It does, in fact, depend largely upon us as to where we will go from here.  The choice is always ours.  It is our responsibility to sort out the many voices ringing in our ears and find the Voice we are meant to hear.

Elvis Presley adds to the chorus and asks the same question in his song:  “Tell me where, where does a fool go when he knows there’s something missing / Tell me where, where will I go from here / Where will I go from here.”

Another group joins in:  “Where do I go? / Every direction seems to be against the flow/ … / Lost in confusion  / I feel like I’m losing it all / Where do I go from here? /… / Nothing is clear / Where do I go from here?”

Where do I go from here?  Where do we go from here?  It’s a big question yet to be answered.  Thus, as Rilke reminds us, “Live the questions now.  Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.”

“In the days ahead we must not consider it unpatriotic

 to raise certain basic questions about our national character.”

 (Martin Luther King Jr., Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?)