In the end, how we deal with crisis is personal
I’m hoarding way too many conflicted emotions these days and not nearly enough toilet paper.
The coronavirus crisis has disrupted time, stretching every day into what feels like a week. All I want to know is when we can expect to get “there” — which is anywhere closer to where we were before we were driven to hiding under our beds.
“Closed until further notice” isn’t helping. “Start your engines” sounds much better, but I have no clue about the risk involved in putting myself back in the human race. I just can’t confidently trust much of anything I’m hearing about the only thing on everyone’s minds these days.
And that’s becoming even more of a problem for me than the virus itself. So what do
I do?
In truth, no one has much of an idea where this crisis is leading us. If we listen to the White House, we’ll be dancing in the streets come Memorial Day. It’ll be time to party like it’s 2019? So while making party plans, what do I make of Dr. Harvey V.
Fineberg, a former president of the National Academy of Medicine, and his prediction that “we face a doleful future”?
Doleful doesn’t sound good. It isn’t. So which view should I trust?
I can definitely trust this: I’d welcome that antibody test, and you know I’d be praying for a positive result. I want to have had the virus. I want to be one of Dr. Seuss’
“star-bellied sneetches,” with my own government-issued “you-can-get-out-fromunder-your-bed-now” card that elevates The decision to reengage with life will what we’re doing. This work should inform This is personal. Our heads and hearts me into the newly-minted elite class. ultimately rest upon personal decisions and us with a breadth of verifiable information need to be aligned.
But, for now, we can’t accept that the not policy rollouts. The latter may advise that leads to data-driven decisions, so we In the words of Carlos Castaneda, “We results are valid and reliable or how long us, but it will still be on each of us to decide can think like scientists. either make ourselves miserable, or we these antibodies will actually protect the when to shake that hand, accept that emIn the end, though, we’ll still need to live make ourselves strong. The amount of chosen ones from contracting the virus brace, extend a dinner invitation or hug our like artists. To be alive at all involves risks work is the same.” So what do I do? If I again. Even when the experts are able to kids who live in urban areas. that we weigh against any benefits gained. want any control, I know what I’m choosproduceing.areliabletest,shouldn’twestillEachofuswillbetestedinwaysthatIt’sonustocreateourownvisionofwhatlife only consider ourselves safe when we can aren’t measured by infrared thermometers. will be like moving forward, and to assume Really, would you rather spend your time be sure that all of us are safe? You know, It’ll be a test of our convictions — each day, full responsibility for the choices we make, miserable? like, “I won’t be comfortable with using my and for a long while. Thus, we need to do risks and all. How much time will need to own roll of toilet paper until I know that the prep work for these kinds of tests like pass, how many opportunities will we need everyone has a roll.” none we’ve had before. Because it’s an to miss, or people we miss seeing up close,
So this makes me jumpy. Absent the imperfect control we exert in our lives, risk before we decide we’ve done the work to star-belly, how will I know who’s safe and is always present. So we have to trust the trust our reentry into a world that will look who’s a leper, including me, at 70 years of process. strange and will likely never again be the age? In other words, we must be confident in world we recall knowing just weeks ago?