The New Normal

As this pandemic continues, I see positive and negative stemming from the experience.

The negatives include the following:

• People not be allowed to be with their loved ones. Either out of precaution or because they are sick with the virus.
• Isolation-related disorders on the rise. 
• Panic buying of food and household items.
• Increasing the divide in our country.

However, there is also the counter-balance positives happening, such as:

• People adjusting to using social media and collaboration tools to connect. So many people are getting creative and are using their imaginations to be together. 
• For example, my colleague who has a toddler told me about her plan for her daughter’s 3rd birthday party coming up this weekend. She has invited the neighborhood friends to the virtual birthday party and dropped off gift packages at each house with things the kids will be making together as a party activity. The party theme is Princes and Knights. After the items are made, the parents will parade the party goers around the neighborhood — keeping appropriate social distancing — wearing what they make. She will drop off cupcakes and favor bags the morning of the party for each kid. Sounds like its going to be fun despite the circumstances.
• I attended a virtual funeral via Zoom for my second cousin who died in NYC of the virus. The only people attending in person were his wife, daughter and the officiate and a helper. It was a moving experience and providing a zoom enabled me to attend — along with 250 others — something I probably wouldn’t have been able to do in person since the trip each way would be 5 hours.
• I have participated in a Passover Seder via Zoom with my Jewish relatives who live in another state. Holding this virtualluy ensured I could attend. And so did my brother who lives even further away and never gets to join us.
• I’ve been included in several virtual happy hours with friends whom I’ve been trying to get together with for a couple years, but our schedules never worked out!
• My daughter is a Clincial Psychologist working with trauma victims. She tells me they have continued to provide counseling sessions remotely and are even adding new patients as the need for support rises. (The down side is she’s working even more hours given there’s no need to commute!)
• Ample supplies have been available from Amazon and other providers who deliver to the house.
• Senior hours have been established at grocery and warehouse stores when extra measures are being taken to santize carts and enforce social distancing while giving the older and at risk populations first access to food and other supplies. I hope this practice continues as our new normal since its much better for seniors.

As for the great American divide, I think the political atmosphere has opened the eyes of some people as the response to this pandemic becomes more obvious. I’ll leave with this though, as our nation longed for leadership, some have stepped up in our time of need. It’s tragic and unforgiveable that people died because mistakes were made. Some would have, but perhaps not this many. Our numbers continue to grow and yesterday the number of Americans who have died from the Corona virus surpassed the number killed in the Vietnam war...