On a day we heard of a terrible milestone of losses in our country due to the pandemic, can we feel anything but sorrow?

This morning, on a walk in this beautiful valley, sun shining and birds singing, I pondered the invitations we receive, all too often, to divide ourselves from one another.

It occurred to me this way.

The opposite of freedom is not responsibility; it is oppression.

The opposite of responsibility is not freedom; it is recklessness.

Freedom and responsibility are entwined, and cannot be separated. For what good is freedom if we do not care for one another? And what good is responsibility if we are unable to exercise it?