Coronavirus: The New Normal of Working From Home

For me, I’m already a few days into this coronavirus thing. Starting Wednesday at my workplace, my team started working from home. It wasn’t until Friday that we received word that we would be working from home until 4/6 to coincide with the recent decision to close Michigan schools.

In my lifetime, I think about the defining moments of my life: the Oklahoma City bombing, the Columbine school shooting, the 9/11 attacks, the shootings throughout the years including the Pulse Nightclub shooting and the 2017 Vegas shooting. Now, we have the coronavirus pandemic that is making its way through the US. While various news outlets have reported how bad that this could be, we won’t really know, until it has fully unfolded.

The last time that I felt this much uncertainty was the morning of the 9/11 attacks. I remember waking up, in between classes from a nap, and being told what happened, but it just didn’t register. Shortly afterwards, my buddies and I sincerely thought that the draft would be reinstituted and that it was another Pearl Harbor. While I remember the considerable fear, more than anything, I remember the tremendous closeness, as we shared our collective grief. We were in IT together. Never were we more indivisible, as we were then.

My Hopes For Moving Forward

With what’s going on, I have a few hopes:

• The most people possible will take the suggested basic precautions seriously including but not limited to lengthy handwashing and self-quarantining (if symptoms start to manifest).

• When venturing out to purchase supplies or groceries, not purchasing all/most of an item. Remember to leave some for the next person.

• Checking in on friends, neighbors and loved ones and offering to bring food, supplies, etc., when needed.

• For those people at home (not working, college/university closed), not treating their time away as a vacation. By this I mean, not going to places where there are larger groups of people. By staying home, we’re trying to ride out the current cases and slowing/mitigating the spread.

Am I My Brother’s (Sister’s) Keeper?

In The Bible, there is the story of Cain killing his brother, Abel. According to Genesis 4:9,

“Then the Lord said to Cain,
’Where is your brother Abel?’
’I don’t know,’ he replied. ‘Am I my brother’s keeper?“

I would say that we are our brother or sister’s keeper. I can’t tell you how many photos that I have seen in Facebook showing empty racks in various stories. I would hope that this is due to a lot of people taking what they need rather than a few people being selfish by hoarding goods and leaving nothing for the next person. Regards to toilet paper, if individuals are afraid of not having enough, then perhaps they should be mindful of their use. In terms of using hand sanitizer, I have heard that, per the CDC, it needs to be at least 60% alcohol to be effective and that soap is also effective.

For those that are still venturing out to do non-essential activities, I would encourage them to stop. It’s not just the people showing symptoms that can be dangerous but, especially, the people that are asymptomatic and spread the infection. By potentially bringing the infection back home, you put yourself and your loved ones at risk, especially those that are at most risk, such as older people and those with compromised immune systems. If through your actions resulted in getting someone seriously sick or dying, would you then be able to say that your actions were worth it?

One Love

As I thought about putting this post together, I thought of a Bob Marley song. I’m not well acquainted with his songs, so I had to look up the lyrics. In his song, “One Love,” (Amazon Affiliate link)

“Sayin', "One love, one heart
Let's get together and feel all right."
I'm pleading to mankind (One love)“

As we get through this and we will get through this, I choose to hope that there will be enough people taking this seriously and doing the right thing for themselves, their loved ones and their known and unknown neighbors. Also, I hope that people will remember to take care of each other and, especially if people are working from home or not working, that they’ll take the opportunity to reconnect with people that they may not have spoken to in awhile. My biggest hope is that, in handling themselves, that most people will look past their immediate self-interests and think about how their actions impacts (positively or negatively) others. NOW is the time to remember that we are a community and it will be that community that will strengthen us and carry us through this situation.

ONE LOVE. ONE HEART. REMEMBER TO BE YOUR BROTHER’S/SISTER’S KEEPER.

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