Covid-19
Featured in the Dayton Daily News
We find ourselves in unchartered times. In the span of just a few weeks, life’s been profoundly uprooted. Suddenly we’ve become victim to a virus that seems to have taken the world hostage. All of us are being affected by Covid-19. Daily routines are dramatically rerouted. This challenge leaves no one immune from its potential wrath. It all feels really big and scary. Any contact with news leaves us feeling lost and perhaps despairing in the vastness of the unknown. The questions are many and answers few.
Perhaps not since 9/11 have we seen such a collective shift in our consciousness. Covid-19 has hijacked our normal lives. Although the big picture feels bleak, I’d like to point out a silver lining; and this is it. Our country is bubbling with that which has always made us great. In a matter of weeks, America is responding to this crisis with ingenuity, creativity and entrepreneurship; which have always been the backbone of our great nation.
Just think about it. School aged children are now home for an indefinite time, perhaps even until the school year end. Parents who never envisioned this scenario are now searching for ways to educate their children via online curriculums and hands on projects. Rather than lamenting on what has been thrust upon them, they are networking with each other giving recommendations on the best online curriculums or creative learning ideas. Even the Cincinnati Zoo is offering Facebook Live segments to showcase their penguins as they frolic along the empty corridors of the zoo campus. Virtual field trips warrant new appreciations.
Gyms and exercise studios are now live-streaming fitness classes that can be done in living rooms. Instead of free weights, paint cans and peanut butter jars are toning bicep muscles while tutorials on how to increase your heart rate make us feel like our bodies aren’t totally turning to mush.
The entire health care system is faced with unprecedented challenge. To triage the needs of patients, doctors are creating a whole new system of patient care through telemedicine. Low level assessment needs like determining if an incision is healing properly or if a rash looks concerning can all be done through video capabilities of a phone or computer.
The rapidity of pharmaceutical companies working to create a vaccine for the Covid-19 is unprecedented. A vaccine or treatment for this virus will take more time than any of us wish, but we should all feel comforted by the fact that our scientific community is coming together for us and the entire world.
It’s been said that the real heroes of this health crisis are every one of us. Unlike any other life emergency, we’re being asked to stay home. The greatest change in consciousness is to realize that really, by doing nothing we are doing our part. This seems to contraindicate our conditioning which usually calls us to action, but at least for now, I realize how important it is to lay low. When things ramp up, it will be the health care workers on the frontlines of this viral war who will be charged with caring for the acutely sick. We owe it to the most vulnerable to give the doctors and nurses their best shot to navigate the rest of us towards steadier days.
We’re all faced with a new mission. It feels gloomy and heavy. However, what I know for sure is that if we stay distanced now, we will come out the other side together. The long run will lead to new and greater things. In the meantime, stay separate, stay smart, and stay hopeful. We will get through this.