Helping those we love in their times of trouble has occupied my mind these last few days. Here, the Rev. Katie Norris wonders:

Can you be the wind beneath each other’s sheets?

It’s written with a light touch and it shines that light on dark places. What does constitute a deal-breaker in a committed relationship? Does “in sickness and in health” come with the footnote “unless you are sick in a hard-to-handle way”?

Let me connect this to another thing I hear people say: “What if you change your mind about that tattoo?” My goodness! The idea that someone would commit to something for their entire life! But you’ve heard that, too, haven’t you?

We all know now that no job is safe and no stockholder owes anyone anything, that times are engineered to be uncertain unless you have a long fat wallet, that our world can be ended in a moment, and having being beaten with those corrupt ideas, we flinch at our commitments.

When the idea of mutual commitment goes away, our peer relations based on such mutual commitment weaken, as does the top-down, noblesse oblige commitment of old-school bosses, and our commitment to good work becomes fear-based.

I’m sure this greatly troubles those who rule us.