A little over two weeks ago, we were living our lives in our ‘normal’. Now we’re part of a global normal called Coronavirus.
Corona to most of us is beer…with or without a lime. Today the word is part of what could become a deadly respiratory illness. The United States is not at a loss for details and information on this illness. It’s on the radio, TV, blogs, Twitter, the tongues of every American, and in the newspapers and magazines.
Reading and listening to everything that’s available to us has made us experts on the Coronavirus. What we don’t have are cold hard facts. What we do have is rumors, guesses, and speculation. What we need and want is one individual who gathers all the facts on a daily basis and presents it to the American public once a day, at the same time, and on all the news channels.
This week I heard the Coronavirus will be over in two weeks, will peak in forty-five days, will be here in months from now and so much more that it’s difficult to sort out what the truth is. The fact is, I don’t think anyone knows what the truth is. It’s an unpredictable illness.
In the last three days, one of them being one of the biggest drinking days of the year known as St Patrick’s Day, we have seen schools, restaurants, bars, malls, movie theaters, churches, senior centers, libraries, all sporting events…professional as well as amateur… along with thousands of other types of businesses close across the country. Most of those closures will not be permanent. Some will.
Those Americans that have maintained a sense of humor have been very creative about all the toilet paper jokes and with good reason. Why hoard toilet paper for a respiratory illness? To try and combat this illness we have a new term for quarantine…it’s now called Social Distancing. In addition to a shortage of toilet paper, there’s a shortage of face masks, rubber gloves, disinfectant wipes, and every cleaning product imaginable, as well as canned goods, dry goods, and frozen food. The shelves at every store, from Mom & Pop stores to big box stores like Costco and Sam’s Club, are out of these products also.
If I recall correctly, about 50+ years ago I learned about supply and demand in grade school. Didn’t pay attention to that back then, or since, but I am today. Why? This is the first real time in my life that supply and demand has become an issue.
Coronavirus has caused a snowball effect. For example, if a restaurant closes, there’s no need for employees. Employees stay home with no pay. No pay means no money for rent / mortgage, food, gasoline, insurance, electric bill, car payment…and on and on.
The schools are closed so those that were getting breakfast, lunch, and after school care no longer have some or all of those available to them. If Mom and Dad work and can still work, there’s nobody to take care of the kids who are now to be home schooled. Those parents who can, work from home. Technology is proving to be very useful.
Then there’s social media…in this case I’ll address Facebook. Anything you ever wanted to know is on Facebook whether it’s true or not. In the case of the Coronavirus, there are facts, rumors, suggestions, jokes, threats, as well as some human interest stories about acts of kindness, generosity, and helpful suggestions for parents who are attempting to home school their children while their financial lives are crumbling. Lots of folks are suggesting that in 9 months from now there will be a huge baby boom as well as many more divorces because of the Coronavirus. Let’s face it, working parents are not used to being home with their children, spouses or significant others. Then there’s the added financial burden. There’s bound to be some fallout from this.
We have no choice but to take this on the chin…myself included. I was supposed to leave tomorrow to visit my son, his wife and my grandson who live 1,400 miles away. The airline kindly changed my travel plans for me. I’m disappointed but there’s nothing I can do but pray that this ends sooner rather than later so we can all get back to the ‘normal’ we know.
I wonder if there could actually be a bright spot in all of this. WHAT IF the kids that are home from school actually learn to fix their beds, clean their rooms, help with meals, dishes, laundry and other household chores? WHAT IF fun things were planned like Netflix movie night with popcorn, board games got dusted off and played, folks were nicer and more helpful to those around them, a few pay-it-forward gestures were done as well as other random acts of kindness?
Did ANYONE consider that this just might be our wake-up call?
Back to Basics 