It’s not the first time I’ve felt out of step with society. In the past week, I’ve seen many individuals anxious, and others outright panicked due to COVID-19 (coronavirus). Some have tried to explain the hoarding of toilet paper, or water, to me, but I still don’t get it.
My son asked me why I felt no sense of panic. After some thought, I told him I was raised partly by my grandmother, who was born in 1906. She lived through two world wars, the flu epidemic of 1918, the crash of the stock market, and the Great Depression, not to mention many personally-difficult years. I had the blessing of spending hundreds of hours talking with this amazing woman, who took careful note of the world around her during her 80+ years and came to a place of widened perspective and peace, that she generously shared with me.
Many call COVID-19 unprecedented, but I would argue that it is not. Writer Charles Coddington explained in The Voice March 12 issue, Mother Nature slaps us up side of the collective head when we over-populate and pollute with impunity. It happens every century, or so. But individuals don’t look at history in the long term, they look only at the history they can remember, which is extremely limited. This biggest difference between this outbreak and the ones of the past is that this time we have 24/7 news coverage of it.
Can things get bad? Sure! But even in my little life, I know what it’s like to go without food or heat for periods of time and still survive. It doesn’t frighten me. I lost significant weight when I couldn’t afford food. It didn’t hurt me. It wouldn’t hurt me now. It wouldn’t hurt most Americans.
If Grandma were still with us, she probably would say something like this: We’ve faced illness before. Most will get over it. A few will not, despite our best efforts. The best we can do is pull together and try to help one another. We can be grateful that we are not at war and don’t have rationing. We can be grateful that a madman is not sending people to gas chambers or invading sovereign countries around him.
I don’t always agree with John W. Whitehead, but in the March 19 issue of The Voice he called this situation “a test” and I agree. It is not only a test for us to think calmly and critically about our leadership’s response to crises and how we might potentially lose freedoms, but a test of our character as individuals and as a Nation. Can we put aside the partisanship and hatred? Can we put the common good ahead of our own comfort? Can we resist the urge to look for scapegoats such as China or the media? Can we sift fears to find facts? Will we stand up for our neighbors if their rights are trampled? We will defend our Constitution if leadership tries to suspend it?
We cannot let fear turn us into cowering children. We need to remain full participants in charting our future and take note of how best to navigate difficult times. Some day we may need to teach these things to our grandchildren.