Editor, Gazette-Journal:
Exhausted. Burnt out. Plain fed-up.
These are the notes of a refrain I hear as a minister in Gloucester County. As a people, we are tired, and the world is weighing heavy.
I look out—whether at Walmart or on a Sunday morning—and I see that we are divided and growing more so as every news cycle passes. There are threats of a new European war. There is an ongoing partisan battle over seemingly everything. People are hungry; prices are going up; mental health issues are spiking; teenagers are self-medicating. This is just the beginning of the litany, and my soul is already tired.
The headlines fail to speak to the latent stress of living in a pandemic-dominated world (whether as a never-vaxer, an ever-masker, or somewhere in between).
We need a break. Health care workers, teachers, public servants, small business owners, parents who have had to work while parenting from home through every COVID quarantine: everyone.
The true break we need is the break from pretend...