Howdy folks! Well, it’s the first day of having the kids home because daycare can’t keep them anymore. The morning was flash cards and working on handwriting for the 3- and 5- year-old respectively, then some games, then lunch, then a nap. Luckily, as my substitute teaching job was essentially covering the $300/week cost for their daycare, My wife and I are lucky to essentially be currently breaking even.
As long as she doesn’t lose her job. Or get laid off. Or we lose health insurance. Or can’t pay our mortgage because there aren’t any jobs because everything closed down. Oh well, I guess it was my own fault for not amassing a dragon’s hoard of wealth before society collapsed or something, right? I mean, all those captains of industry are so well prepared that they are… oh, wait, they’re all standing in front of Uncle Sam with their hands out for a free check to their billion-dollar companies. Huh, that’s weird isn’t it?
Suddenly, when faced with a crisis, everyone’s wondering where the government is in all of this. And, to the tiniest, paper-thinnest, could-you-have-given-me-the-smallest-slice-of-the-pizza amount of credit, some folks in the government seem to be stepping up. Even our big boy of a President seems to understand that bread riots (or healthcare riots) would put a dent in his Presidency and keep him from getting re-elected, so maybe the time has come to actually help people? I know we’ve spent 40 years saying every one for themselves, but oops I guess humans are a social species after all, who knew?
So everyone’s a little bit socialist now, and that’s okay. It’s not a weakness to care about other people. It’s not a failure to want to help someone you’ll never know. It’s called compassion, and while it might not make you a wolf on Wall Street, it will make you a functioning member of society and someone that actually gets replies to their Facebook messages. Turns out just walling yourself up in a silo may be good to stop the spread of the virus, but it’s not so great for your worldview.
So use this opportunity to talk to folks… over the phone of course. Or video-chat. Or email. Most importantly, talk to folks you may not know or even like… and be nice to them. Hear what they have to say. Don’t immediately prepare your counter-arguments like a Civil War soldier packing down his powder. Because it turns out that a virus doesn’t care how many people you shout down on the internet, or how desperately you believe in your cause. At the end of the day, we’re all just squishy people walking around trying to make this work and, currently, trying not to shake hands. A situation like this is surprisingly democratic, and our response has to be the same. Like them or not, your neighbors are human beings just like you and deserve the same respect and dignity you do… and if you don’t believe me, you can take it up with the multiple Republicans right now proposing free money, mortgages and rent for everyone and then get back to me.
The only question left is, once this is all over, are we going to puncture the lifeboat and all swim our separate ways, or are we going to work together to row for shore? Sure, you might tread water long enough to make it, but I think the events of the past month show just how uncertain that is. At the risk of sounding corny, time and tide wait for no one, and it’s time to admit that the waters around you have grown.
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