Are you doing enough to help other sentient beings right now? Let that question hang about your heart for a bit.

The answer is probably not.

Is it possible for you to reach out to someone you only just know? If you do, can you do it in the spirit of caring?

To care, you need to imagine something about what it’s like for that person to live as she does. Does he have a history of sinus infections? If so, might he be worried about his immune symptom would hold up were he to have the COVID-19 virus?

Do her older parents live in New York City? What might it be like for her to have older parents living in the epicenter of the pandemic?

How large is the house his family is now occupying? How long might it be before he and his wife get on each other’s nerves after all these years during which he has been working outside the house?

Does she feel lonely? Might she? Would a call make a difference to her?

These are simple, straightforward instances of caring. Caring, you noticed, requires some oomph on your part. Better than writing to say, “I’m thinking of you,” is saying something you know to be true about the person about whom you’ve been thinking and to whom you’re now writing.

Don’t be afraid to imagine and, from there, to empathize. A new world may be birthed from the caring entanglements that emerge from the rubble of liberal-humanist-materialist civilization.

Therefore, ask yourself again, “Am I doing enough to help?”