We don’t think in terms of abundance. There is plenty. My refrigerator is full. My freezer is full. My pantry is full. And yet, I have thus nagging fear that I don’t have enough, whatever that means. I don’t need to go anywhere to get anything. There are businesses that will deliver, should I run out of anything.

Now this pandemic could last longer than what the epidemiologists estimate. We don’t need to face that for quite a while.

I’ve always been aware that our fear of running out drives a good deal of the economy. The Toilet Paper Phenomenon bears witness to this. The Seinfeld episode The Stall comes to mind. ” I don’t have a square to spare.”

Fear of scarcity and viewing our neighbors as threats seem to dominate our thinking. Now we shouldn’t be naïve, but don’t have to be cynical either. But we fluctuate from one polarity to the other, without spending a whole lot of time in the middle ground.