As we navigate an uncertain road in our new reality of OCD-grade personal hygiene and hermit-approved social distancing, the impact of coronavirus on the life order we’d come to take for granted is surreal. I’m reminded of the iconic line from a 1939 movie classic and the precise moment of realization that a world had profoundly changed.
Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore
– Dorothy: The Wizard of Oz
I’m not sure quarantine is what Dorothy had in mind when she taught a world bound for war, “there’s no place like home.” But signs of flattened infection rates, two months into this pandemic, suggests it remains very good advice.
It was in early March, in the sunshine and warmth of a Palm Springs, California winter escape, that seeds of concern first took root. After being generally unfazed by initial news reports of a viral outbreak in Wuhan, China, discovery of cases up the coast from us, in Washington State, caught our attention.
The tone of media reporting changed quickly. Within a week of Covid-19 hitting the radar, our assessment of personal risk was downgraded from abstract threat to imminent danger. My wife and I came to two sobering conclusions: this was likely to get very bad, very quickly, and; if we were going to catch something nasty, we’d much rather it be at home in Canada, than in the dubious care of the United States health system, 3,800 kilometers away.
By March 14th, armed with a small supply of rubber gloves, sanitizing wipes, and for reasons still unclear, zinc-enriched cough candies, we kicked off a nerve-frazzled, three-day drive home to London, Ontario. In a fortuitous window of favourable weather and light traffic, we made record time through nine States and a minefield of virus laden service stations, fast food joints and roadside hotels.
Safely home, we covered the mandatory 14-day period of self-isolation and voluntarily raised it another week for good measure. Now, more than two months of social lockdown later, I’m left with an adjusted perspective and a greater appreciation for people and roles, long taken for granted.
Profiles in Courage
A by-product of this pandemic has been gaining a deeper appreciation for those keeping the wheels of subsistence turning and the lights of hope switched on. I’m amazed at the bravery of people, in roles deemed essential, who have been cast into the eye of the storm to keep us safe and fed.
It’s both heart-filling and heartbreaking to reflect on the sacrifices made and anxieties borne by these heroes. A tremendous debt is owed to our brothers and sisters in healthcare, first response services, food and drug supply, transportation and delivery, cleaning and janitorial operations and waste disposal.
There will undoubtedly be some positives to emerge from this crisis and I hope one of them is for these courageous champions of essential service to be given their due. Beyond fair compensation, they have earned the respect and gratitude of those who rely existentially, as it turns out, on their work. The main responsibility and risk, for the rest of us, has been to hunker down in the safety of our homes and try to avoid carpal tunnel syndrome from overuse of the TV remote.
The Power of a Kind Heart
The very thought of it is excruciating. A few months ago it was inconceivable that a loved one could spend days, or weeks, in a hospital ICU, unvisited by family and left to draw their last breath, alone and afraid. The empathy and compassion of nurses and doctors using cell phones to connect critically ill patients with family members, hits me right in the heart. A merciful opportunity for an agonizing goodbye.
All we’re asked by these earthly angels—risking their own health and their family’s—is to stay home so they’re not overwhelmed beyond their capacity to save us. Most of us are gratefully complying.
It has been inspiring to see healthcare workers being recognized with nightly porch and balcony tributes, first responder drive-bys and Snowbird fly-overs.
But it’s not only healthcare workers and the other essential service workers that have stepped up. Times of crisis seems to bring out the best in us and it has been remarkable to see the many examples of family, neighbours and strangers looking out for each other. How great that special occasions are being recognized with convoys of vehicles parading past the homes of birthday, anniversary and retirement celebrants, lest they be denied their special moment.
There have been many other examples of people making an effort to fill the social vacuum in these crazy times. Facebook groups created to stay in contact and ease stresses with humour and helpful news. High school alumni groups posting ‘then and now’ or ‘me and my pet’ photos while reminiscing about simpler times, decades past.
Celebrities have pitched in, too. Musicians and other entertainers, lifting spirits with social media links to mini-concerts and shows. I’ve enjoyed countless hours of music from John Fogerty, Kodaline, Bruce Springsteen, Rod Stewart and Mary Chapin Carpenter. What a rare treat to see and hear these legends performing from the intimacy of their own homes.
Bright Minds For Desperate Times
If ever there was a challenge to test the mettle of leadership, a global pandemic surely ranks among the more illuminating. Few predicaments so definitively hang our fate on the wisdom and creativity of political, scientific and business leaders. We’re desperate for our scientists to develop therapies and vaccines and we’re relying on our politicians and business leaders not to screw things up, in the meantime.
Whatever your political bent, there would seem to be broad support for the actions of the Canadian government and provincial leadership, to date. I’ll reserve comment on our neighbours to the south, but, suffice to say, our 2021 Palm Springs reservation will remain tentative for a while.
What a therapeutic life raft the great minds of technology have thrown us during this crisis. A means of coming together to lessen the sting of physical separation. FaceTime, Zoom and Skype have allowed us a surprisingly good facsimile of togetherness. We recently delivered a load of chicken pies to our daughters and ‘hosted’ a three-household cyber version of our usual bi-weekly family dinner.
Friends and families are getting together, virtually, to share conversation and a glass of wine, assemble for card games, and bridge the gap between grandparents and grandkids. In some cases, people are in more regular contact with family and friends than they were before the storm.
The Fraud Behind the Curtain
Social media is a double-edged sword. It can be a valuable means of human connection and information sharing. It also provides an open mic for people and organized forces intent on peddling hate, propaganda and conspiracy theories. In some cases it’s misinformation amplified by unwitting accomplices, in others, it is promoted with deliberate and insidious intent. Normally, these intrusions are more of an irritation that we just scroll past. In the midst of a pandemic, they can be downright dangerous.
Over the past few weeks—before being yanked by Facebook and YouTube for breach of user codes of conduct—a slick gaslighting effort known as Plandemic was circulating and viewed by millions. What makes this particular conspiracy video relatively effective, is its professional presentation and opportunistic exploitation of people’s fears and uncertainties.
The objective was not necessarily to have people believe all the spurious claims it makes, it was to plant the seed of doubt. It preys on a vulnerable population searching for answers and understanding in unsettling times and it seeks to sow doubt about the very people, policies and practices necessary to get us through this crisis.
It is for us to discern truth and reject the trolls of conspiracy theory. A health crisis that depends heavily on broad support of proven containment and mitigation practices, is no time to be distracted by vaccination and moon landing skeptics spewing propaganda from behind the cyber curtain.
Presenting Our Better Selves
By most accounts, we are in the early stages of this crisis. How it trends will largely depend on how the general population negotiates the uncertainties of community reengagement. One thing seems clear; we will need to draw on the traits Dorothy naturally possessed and her beloved travelling companions determinedly sought.
I’ve found I’m much less likely to be fearful, or prone to bouts of self-pity, when I compare the fortunate circumstances of my family to others. Perspective changes quickly when reflecting on what healthcare workers face everyday, or my warrior niece dealing with these new threats in the mid-courses of chemotherapy treatment. I consider myself lucky when I think about those struggling to pay bills and raise families with unexpectedly curtailed cash flows.
Perhaps those most needing reserves of courage will be the decision makers under heavy pressure to open things back up. Careful calibration will be required in the resumption of economic operations and social activities. Getting it wrong invites a second wave of infection and the increased casualty counts, overwhelmed healthcare services, and debilitating lockdown that comes with it.
As we continue down this precarious path and try to keep ourselves safe and sane, it is important that people continue to look out for people. The longer this goes on, the greater the threat to our physical, mental and financial well-being.
People face a wide range of hardships and possess different thresholds of tolerance. Already, foodbanks are experiencing record demand and according to recent reports, domestic violence is on the rise in this country.
One can only imagine the impact this crisis is having on mental health and those struggling with alcohol and drug addictions.
As formal restrictions relax and our leaders start easing us back into the first phase of normalcy, we may be moving forward with some ambivalence. We want to get on with life, but, without a vaccine, how safe will we be?
Success will be heavily dependant on a carefully controlled reopening that keeps us in the “containment’ mode, rather than
spiralling back into the extreme lockdown of the “mitigation” phase, we’re in now. The light switch was flicked off on the way into this lockdown. Getting out of it requires a slow, gradual turn of a dimmer dial.
We’re now at the point where our federal, provincial and municipal leaders are easing restrictions on employment and social activities. It needs to be done in a measured with close monitoring of the impact on infection rates.
A cabin-feverish general population will need to have patience and use good judgement to give the plan a fighting chance. The next few weeks will be the test. A month or two from now, we will have a pretty good idea of how well we did.
Now we step out of our bunkers and into the strange new light of an untested road. I’m hopeful it will lead us to a safe and satisfying new reality. We may even come to appreciate our new version of the world, more than we did the old.
But, for the love of God, please let us not encounter the flying monkeys.
I’m Derrick Coyle; proud husband, father and grandad, happily retired in London, Ontario after a long and satisfying career in the world of insurance. SilverFoxWise is a personal blog created to indulge a longtime passion and scratch a creative itch; an introspective boomer’s cathartic canvas of musings and perspectives. Thanks for coming along for the read.
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