COVID-19, Liminality, and Easter Weekend

[Note: at this point, most of the States in the U.S., and a significant majority of the countries of the world, are under "shelter at home" orders. In some places, like Jordan, there is a government-enforced curfew. There are 1.7 million cases in the world, and over 528,000 in the U.S., with both numbers rising daily.]

I will always think of our Spring 2020 Middle East Studies Program semester as the "COVID-19 Semester," or the "Semester of Uncertainty." The story of how COVID-19 moved from a distant storm on the far horizon, to a wave that broke on us, forcing change after change over a period of two weeks in March, cultiminating in our finding out on March 14 that the Jordanian government was going to shut the airport on the 17th, and our students therefore had to scramble to get tickets to leave before then - that story is one for another time.

At this point let me just say that one interesting aspect of the COVID-19 spread and impact was an overlap with themes of intercultural growth and development that we are always emphasizing with our students. One of those themes is liminality, dealing with liminal space and time. 

Here are some quotes from Richard Rohr ("Everything Belongs") on Liminal space / liminality, that we uses with our MESP students, followed by a bit of reflection:

"...we have to allow ourselves to be drawn into sacred space, into liminality. All transformation takes place there. We have to move out of 'business as usual' and remain on the 'threshold' (limen, in Latin) where we are betwixt and between. There, the old world is left behind, but we're not sure of the new one yet. That's a good space. There there often and stay as long as you can by whatever means possible. It's the realm where God can best get at us because we are out of the way. In sacred space the old world is able to fall apart, and the new world is able to be revealed. If we don't find liminal space in our lives, we start idolizing normalcy. We end up believing it's the only reality, and our lives shrivel.

"If we bring to a retreat [or to an experience like being on lockdown because of COVID-19] all the baggage and mentality of business as usual, we aren't really making a 'retreat'. So nothing new or transformative can happen. I've given lots of retreats. Certain people come to hear what they already know. If I say something they don't know, I can see their arms cross and they mentally pack up and leave. But if we hear only what we already know, we simply cannot learn or grow.

"Liminal space induces a type of inner crisis to help us make a needed transition. In brief, it should wake us up a bit. That's what is meant by a liminal experience."

Reflection on these quote:
On MESP, we talk with our students a lot about embracing their semester in the Middle East as "liminal space" / "liminality" - leaving normal life, being in a place of openness with the possibility of having new experiences, seeing things from new perspectives, experiencing transformation. (They do!)

It strikes me that this whole worldwide COVID-19 phenomenon is an experience of all of us (across countries, around the world) being forced into a liminal time and space (a space and time where life is not in our control). Many people I know seek times of retreat, solitude and silence, to get "out of normal life" for reflection, for growth. Now with COVID-19, isolation, with some degree of solitude and stillness (lack of ability to move about, and to do all the things we normally do), even silence, has come to us, been thrust upon us. The question is, will we embrace this as an opportunity for growth - for stepping back, slowing down, reflecting on life, our values, how we live, what we normally run after, our motivations and goals, etc.? If we do, this time might not only not be wasted, but could be very beneficial.

May this COVID-19 time be (as Rohr says) "sacred space" for us.

Another point of connection is that today - Holy Saturday or "Saturday of Light" as they call it in the Middle East - is another liminal space and time, as we remember the world, humanity, waiting in the darkness and uncertainty between the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. What an unprecedented opportunity we have to walk through these days while living in our own times of uncertainty, looking for hope, looking for light at the end of the tunnel.

Culture quote of the Day: letting the encounter with the Other set us free

“The wisdom of the Desert Fathers includes the wisdom that the hardest spiritual work in the world is to love the neighbor as the self – to encounter another human being not as someone you can use, change, fix, help, save, enroll, convince or control, but simply as someone who can spring you from the prison of yourself, if you will allow it.” – Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World (Chapter 6, “The Practice of Encountering Others”)

What does the author mean, that the other can “spring you from the prison of yourself”?

These words resonate with those of Fr. Richard Rohr, who says “It is always an encounter with otherness that changes me,” giving me “a reference point that relativizes all of my own.” “Without the other,” he continues, “we are all trapped in a perpetual hall of mirrors that only validates and deepens our limited and already existing worldviews.” And, “Until we have points of comparison, we don’t understand much. When we have those, we can relativize our private absolute center.” (Everything Belongs)

I think Rohr and Taylor are getting at the same reality – all of us naturally function / exist as the center of our own universe. We see things from our perspective, and the world simply is (to us) as we know it to be. On a group scale, we call this ethnocentrism (seeing the world from the center of my group).

It is encountering the “Other” that can free us from this “prison” of our self, of our perpetual hall of mirrors, where I only see what I see and assume the world is that way. It can do this work of setting us free “if we allow it.”

To return to a personal example – as I grew up Minnesotan Swedish Baptist, my understanding of being Christian was defined by and limited to an understanding of how we were Christian. I was unaware that there were different practices, perspectives, interpretations (of baptism, church life, lifestyle issues like drinking alcohol, etc.). All I could see was our way of being Christian, and was thus, “trapped in a perpetual hall of mirrors” (in “the prison of myself” / of our group), where I could only see ourselves, our ways. It was the encounter with other types of Christians, in University and in the Middle East, especially, that began to “awaken” (free) me, to show me more of the breadth of ways of being Christian, in doctrine, ways of reading and understanding the Bible, practices. This process “relativized my private absolute center,” putting my understanding of how to be Christian in relation to more of the fullness (through history and across the world) of how others were/are Christian.

At the time, the process felt challenging, unnerving, at times overwhelming, like things were unravelling, coming apart. Eventually it came to feel liberating and enriching. And this, I think, is why both Taylor and Rohr speak so highly of the value of encountering others.

To come back (as I always do!) to the Intercultural Development Continuum, this is what intercultural growth and development, i.e., the movement into the phases of Acceptance and Adaptation, is all about – growing in our ability to see ourselves in light of and in relation to different others.