What the heck is going on with 2020? Like seriously, its April 2nd and the last three months have been terrible!
I was just looking back at my last post, goals for 2020, and its like a whole different world. The goals I had outlined seem so petty in retrospect, and not able to be accomplished in the current state of society. Maybe it is time to rethink those goals. It something I will need to consider.
As I write this entry, its been just under three weeks since Massachusetts issued a “stay at home” order to help limit the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the cause of COVID-19 (aka Coronavirus).
Three weeks. Yes, three weeks of hanging out in my home, with the occasional short excursion to the local grocery store. I mean overall it hasn’t been bad, and I really can’t complain as there are people who don’t have this luxury. I have a job that allows me to work remotely and has little chance of being significantly impacted by the current economic downturn. Its still tough.
They are the heroes of this crisis though. The ones who don’t have this luxury. The healthcare works, grocery store employees, public officials, public works employees, utility companies. I can go on, but they really do deserve the respect of the country. There are the millions of workers who have lost their jobs due to the stay at home orders. They deserve a equal share of honor and respect during this time. Something the officials in Washington say they care about, but action is greater than words they speak. Action that has been limited for one reason or another, but in the end we will all know who the real warriors were. These are the same people who will be on the front lines once again helping to rebuild this economy and our communities, back to a normal. A “new” normal, or a old normal (from previous pandemics) is one we don’t yet know.
But I digress. The world we now live in has very quickly changed from one of carefree. To the extent of your day being the daily dog walk in the evening. I think back to my weekly routines frequently. The trips to Starbucks, the friendly daily conversations with co-workers, visiting with friends and family. All things once taken for granted.
Today, things are much different. Those daily conversations are now G-Chat messages, Google Meet sessions & Zoom meetings. Similar in function but just not the same. Those off the cuff conversations with your cube mates or friends in the hallway are no more. Even the hour long drive to and from work is something I miss. Those two hours a day was “me” time. Time that I spent listening to sports radio, podcasts, music, or just time to think about the day and life. It was a time of preparing for the day, and decompression from the day. A switch between work life and home life. A commute that I will likely never take for granted again.
Taking things for granted. What is it about humanity that we just don’t ever appreciate what we have until it is gone? or maybe that is just the societal nature of the 21st century…
In the end I know we will make it through this in the end. We being society. Yes, there will be significant loss of life by the end of this, but we will persevere as a country and a world. Humanity has survived many previous pandemics, with technology and science there is no reason we won’t survive this one.
But will we learn?
Thats is a question I ask a lot lately. Will we learn what the priorities in life really are?
- Healthcare.
- A living wage.
- Local sourcing of food.
- Regional/National sourcing of resources.
Will we learn? I am not sure we will. Its funny to see how fast we are willing to give out money in a crisis, but not willing to ensure that the majority of society can live a comfortable life.
Will we learn? Only time will tell, but I truly hope that we have.
Neal's New England 