A New Normal

It has been an eternity since San Francisco shut down March 13. I want to say, “Who knew we would be in a totally different reality?” but it was right there in the news from January onward. I paid no attention, kept going on with my life—rushing from here to there, trying to work multiple gigs (like most urbanites do these days), taking care of family, burning the candle at both ends. Like most.   

I got a little unnerved when I went to the market one day and it was packed, some shelves were bare, and people were eerily quiet.  I had been in Washington, D.C., right after 9/11 and the hair on the back of my neck stood up just like back then. 

And then it was March 16. Shelter-in-place for California. I heard Andrew Cuomo say not to use that phrase because it scares people. He’s right. The first thing I did was panic a little.  Then, I felt a little guilty for not taking COVID-19 more seriously earlier. For some reason, that 1946 prose-poem/confession by German Pastor Martin Niemoller popped into my head and I made a mental revision:  

First it was in Wuhan, and I did not speak out because the Chinese government would deal with it 

Then it traveled to Europe, and I did not speak out because the EU would deal with it 

Then it came to Washington State, and I did not speak out because Jay Inslee would deal with it 

Then it came to California, and I did not speak out because I wasn’t older with co-morbidities 

Then it came for me and there was no room left in ICU. 

And then I felt guilty again. Not for being inattentive this time. For being egocentric. I am around a lot of people that have it harder than me and are a lot tougher. Don’t get me wrong, things are going to be hard for a long time. But it’s boots-on-the-ground time. No matter what any leader did or didn’t do, whether our CDC was late with testing or we failed to pay attention to the news because we are all too exhausted by a presidency that seems to have lasted 300 years, we each had to pull it together. 

Maybe your job is an EMT, on the front lines. Maybe your job is a nurse or doctor, trying to save lives. Maybe you are a construction worker, frantically building hospitals. Maybe you are an engineer, keeping the internet alive. Maybe you are a teacher, staying up late at night to scale your curriculum to online courses. Maybe you are a student, trying to grow and build a better tomorrow.  

Tens of millions of people lost livelihoods in an instant and thousands are losing lives.

Maybe, just maybe, your job is to stay at home and socially distance to stop the spread of the disease that could be deadly to your friend or family or neighbor.  That’s a hell of an important job, too. It has been a hard month for America, but there is also a long road ahead.

 Even though it is a scary time and we sometimes feel alone and afraid, we are not. We are all members of a unique community: The Human Race. We each have to passionately do our own job, like our lives depend on it.  We hope our government comes through, but it shouldn’t matter. It’s up to each of us — individually – to be proud, strong, and moral. To support our communities, no matter how small our job may seem – to sing from Italian balconies or step out of New York apartments to applaud the first responders every night at 7pm.  To buy gift certificates from your favorite restaurants so they will be there when this is all over. For artists, our job is to provide a refuge for people that need a light at the end of the tunnel, to lift our fellow humans up with inspiring stories and anecdotes, gathered from around the globe. To remind Our Human Race why we exist. From every corner, people are reaching out to others and those stories have shone very brightly in a dark time.  

 What made you happy today? I’ll bet it will make someone else smile, too.  

 We are going to try to post some each day, but if we don’t, we’ll have more to share the next day. We want to provide links to helpful articles and charities that are working around the clock. Welcome to the GRATITUDES community.