Like most of you, I am practicing social distancing from my home. For me this is not too far out of the ordinary. As a writer, I have been predominantly work at home for most of my career, but I do enjoy getting out every once in a while and seeing the world. I wanted to share some tidbits from my three plus week homestay.
Could you imagine going through the COVID-19 pandemic fifty years ago? Twenty years ago? How about ten years ago? Our ways of communication has greatly increased in just the last ten years. FaceTime went live June 7, 2010. We’ve all seen the commercials and the pictures of people, mainly kids, on their various handheld techno gadgets and rolled our eyes. How many times have you said, or wanted to say, “get off your phone and go outside!”
Sounds like a Gabriel Garcia Marquez title, doesn’t it? Well, I’m certainly no Marquez, and I’ve always been more logical than romantic, but these last couple of weeks have already taught me a few things.
Recently, I became aware of the Fourteen Holy Helpers. I was thinking about the lesson that Fred Rogers would teach children about how to cope with profound crisis. He said to look for the helpers because there were always helpers. Sometimes they we teachers, sometimes police officers or doctors and nurses. Sometimes they were neighbors, but there were always going to be helpers and the helpers would help.
During this unusual time in all our lives due to the Covid-19 virus, many of you are at home and now thinking it is a good time to bring a new cat or kitten into your home to spend time with while you shelter-in-place. But what happens when we all go back to work? Are you going to then think the cat/kitten won’t work because you’re busy again?
