These strange times have had a toll on us all. We have been apart for too long. We have been lost, confused, sad, tired, cold and alone for too long. And the absence of others can magnify our sentiments about them; we come to love what we miss and dread what brings us worry. Over time and without supervision, those small specters of dread can build a palace of fury.

Anyone can attest to the bitterness of uncertainty. It leaves us open and exposed, cold and dissatisfied, weak and unstable. In the night of doubt, it takes no poetry to convince us of the hungry wolves in the trees. But it does no good to hurl stones into the dark. There is no better cure for fear than knowledge; sharing the truth cuts a ray of light through those very shadows. And when the sun rises, we will come to see that there were truly no wolves at all.

As a united people, we are more resilient than we know. We’ve tested our resolve in the cold teeth of natural disasters; we’ve even brushed against the possibility of our nation’s impermanence. And we forgot to love our friends. But it serves no propose to ruminate on what has been done wrong when we can only drive one way into the future. So rest assured, our social division is but a surface wound. We’re cleaved from our neighbors only by greedy hands, not by the terrors of the night or divine judgment.

We’ve all spent at least one night alone in the desert of fear — desperate for a drop of reassurance that all will be OK, pleading for a loan of courage when our own hearts cannot cover the charge. But today is not that time.