Facing our fears

The outpouring of love, support, and prayers offered to me and my family has moved me to tears. Thank you everyone for taking time away from your own family and your own concerns over these uncertain times, to wish us all well. We are doing what we can to stay healthy as we wait to hear our results from the COVID-19 testing. I don’t know how getting the results will make us feel. If it is a positive result do we feel happy that we are weathering this uncharted storm? If it is negative do we worry more because now our immune systems are already weakened? Will any of this relieve the coughing that continues to wrack my body, as my lungs fight to rid themselves of an unknown invader, and my daughter works to gather each breath, as her life-time struggle with asthma, once again takes over her body?

We are all facing the challenge of a lifetime right now, but I believe it is how we have responded to one another during these trying times that will resonate over the coming months. Knowing there are people getting up everyday to walk to the front lines and face the risk of this ravaging beast head-on, has to give all of us hope for the future. 

So many people want to be angry at someone or something right now, but I ask those people; please look around you and see for yourself the people that are quietly taking on everything that life throws at them, and yet they endure, with grace, with fortitude, and with giving. The people that are using their days off from work to become delivery angels, bringing much needed groceries and supplies to those in need that either don’t have the funds to support themselves, or are unable to go out because of a self-isolation order. The neighbours and friends that have stepped up to help those that are currently under an isolation order, and can’t get out for basic supplies. The pilots and flight crews that are still getting people where in the world they need to go. The airport workers that are making flights possible. The cleaning crews that are still trying. The doctors, nurses, and other health professionals that are working tirelessly, behind the scenes, to do everything in their power to ward off the worst cases of this destructive virus. The truck drivers and delivery people that are working long past their regulars hours, in order to supply the needs of all of us. The grocery stores employees, and restaurant crews that continue to provide us with our most basic need for food. And all of the costless other people that are working when the rest of us can’t.

This is a time unparalleled by anything we have ever seen in most of our living memories. The war veterans around us have a better idea of what this fear and craziness is like; the millions of refugees forced from their homes, their livelihoods, leaving all of their familiar memories, know this kind of fear; the destitute and homeless, facing daily uncertainty, are familiar with the unease that this virus has caused. And yet the bulk of us have simply turned away from these veterans of fear, these warriors of uncertainty, labeling them somehow beneath us, outdated, insignificant, or unrelatable on some level; we think this kind of uncertainty can’t breach those walls we have built up around ourselves and our families; it can’t touch the executives living off their hard work and dedication-to-task, that has afforded them everything they want in life. But we have to realize, this beast cares not where we come from or who we are. We are all susceptible to its claws and teeth as even the thought of contracting it puts fear into our hearts and minds. 

And yet there are people in the world still not ready to realize the devastation that this beast brings in its wake; as though somehow defiance alone can be the shield against the onslaught of uncertainty we are all facing. People continue to gather in crowds, continue to dash out quickly to buy those items they suddenly can’t live without, even though they should be or already are on a self-isolation order, putting even more people at risk as they selfishly pursue their own interests or needs, heedless to the shouted warnings from countries that didn’t take the outbreak serious, or react quickly enough. Are these risk-takers able to look their children in the eye and tell them that they know they are about to go out into the public and put other people at risk, knowing that some of those people they put at risk might not live to see their families again? All so that they can buy something they have decided that they need, beyond all costs, and all reason. What does it take for everyone to get onboard? What level of fear has to invade your own mind before you realize that the measures being taken by our governments have not been taken lightly. 

Please honour the truths that are being shouted from the highest reaches of government as countries scrabble to keep their citizens safe. Italy is pleading with the world to heed their mistakes, before other countries fall further into the grips of this beast. People are dying, that is the outcome of sloppy thinking.

Who knew we would be having a conversation like this in our lifetimes? The reality of a world pandemic has been the thing of fiction, or bad dreams. Now suddenly it has exploded onto the world stage, demanding that we give it our attention, all of our attention, not just those that have been touched by the beast as it perilously barrels around the planet. 

A friend of mine texted me a few days ago and said that he feels like it is the end of the world somehow. Not literally, but figuratively. I texted him back and said that I personally think that this will change how we feel about the world from this time onward. Mixing everyone into a big pot of humanity was bound to have consequences at some point. It was only a matter of time before the pool of germs from every country in the world mixed in a way that could create a pandemic.

Travel is so readily available to everyone these days (prior to border closures around the world), that we all have to realize that this freedom to move so quickly, anywhere in the world, is what can cause a virus like we are now facing.

It is sad that we had to come to this before people recognized that basic hygiene is key to our healthy existence. Were people simply not washing their hands prior to this, nor cleaning their homes? This makes me wonder what people live like in their day-to-day lives. Haven’t we all been saying for years that widely-used communal items, like shopping carts, shopping baskets, airport bins, luggage carts, handrails, elevator buttons, door handles, and bathroom stall doors, to name just a few, are germ carriers at the highest levels. Yet, even as we would acknowledge that fact, nothing was done about it. 

Suddenly we are hearing about the heroic cleaning that is taking place now that COVID-19 has unleashed it’s fury on the world stage. Why is cleaning suddenly heroic? This is a level of public area sanitization that should be happening every day, especially in those areas where people from around the world converge; airports, train stations, bus terminals, and cities’ large public gathering areas. When all of the craziness surrounding the COVID-19 virus subsides, will old practices simply revert back to what they were? No public areas getting the special cleaning attention that they need daily? I find it hard to fathom that blatant disregard for everything that this pandemic has taught us so far, will once again push common sense beneath the dirty surfaces we all touch in our day-to-day lives.

And yet, even in the face of all of this uncertainty and fear, I remain hopeful for the human race. We know what we need to do to keep our planet and ourselves healthy and sustainable. Will we heed this world warning?

And as the dawn allows the sun to once again break it’s rays of light and warm onto the earth, I have the aspiration that the world will continue to come together in a way that will lift our hearts, calm our minds, and instill hope and renewal, into our spirits. 

As we move forward into the unknown let us collectively, as a human race, use strength, fortitude, kindness, generosity, hope, and love, to forge a shield that we can raise up, as high as our arms will allow, and our minds will endure, to protect and strengthen our resolve to not only survive, but to survive well, for ourselves, our families, and most importantly, for one another.