ESSAY // Meeting the Moment
by Lauren Earline Leonard. Illustration by Christopher Spencer
EXCERPT //
I’ve lived in Philadelphia for half of my life, and yet the city, with its indignant refusal to live up to its potential, continues to confound me. I waffle between wanting to be its cheerleader and wanting to distance myself from yet another disappointment. Throughout the pandemic, I wondered if it was time to take flight. All the while I judged harshly those who did leave, especially at the height of the pandemic, as fair-weather Philadelphians: not quite gritty or loyal enough to call this place home.
But whether you sheltered here or fled, there is no more normal, even with summer and vaccines on the way. A refusal to accept that fact may also mean missing out on our last best opportunity to save ourselves.
Both the theater geek and the construction manager in me sees our history, infrastructure, culture, and geographic appeal as a possible model of the post-pandemic city of the future. Here, where the once radical—and still evolving—philosophy of liberty was born, we could again meet the moment by establishing systems of resiliency and equity that secure our collective future. To do so, though, will require the kind of visionary leadership seemingly at odds with a people known for “the Philly Shrug,” a gesture meant to convey a variation of the following: Yeah. That’s totally messed up, but it’s Philly. It is what it is.
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