The Times They Are A-Changin’

“For the times they are a-changin’.”  Bob Dylan

It was 1964 when Bob Dylan released these words into our collective consciousness through his folk ballad “The Times They Are A-Changin’.”  At that time, the civil rights movement and the Vietnam war were creating social upheaval, and people were marching in the streets throughout the country demanding change. 

Indeed, it was that same year that the Civil Rights Act was signed into law, prohibiting discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin and providing for the integration of public schools.  I was a young boy at that time and have only a fleeting memory of that initial movement, but the seeds planted then have certainly influenced my own life. 

Now here we are more than 50 years later, with marches throughout the country reminding us that black lives matter.  Here we are well over 100 years later with demands for statues celebrating leaders of the Civil War confederacy to be removed from public spaces.  Perhaps the times are a-changin’, but too often those changes are on generational time or longer.    

As a healthcare provider trying to navigate all the realities of a pandemic, I struggle with how best to best respond to the present gaping wound of racial inequity and discrimination in all of its subtle and not so subtle forms. 

I don’t have any brilliant answers, but here’s what I know I can do and what we can all do.  We can believe that change is possible, that it must happen, and that we individually and collectively can help bring it about.   We can understand our own pasts and acknowledge that we likely bring biases to our present circumstances, whether conscious or unconscious.  We can invite others to share their stories and listen intently, being open not only to a change of mind, but more importantly, a change of heart. 

For it is in the heart that lasting change starts.  It is from our willingness to allow our hearts to be broken open to that place of individual and collective woundedness that true healing can begin to occur.  And it is time, for the times they are a-changin’.  What will be your contribution?