Small world
Does the world feel smaller to you? To me, it kind of does. I feel more connected to each other in a global sense, even as we stay distant and stay in our homes.
I mean, we are doing the same things they are doing in India and Italy and New Zealand. We’re staying in our homes, and not going to the shops unless it’s for groceries. The amazing medical staff keep risking it all to help others, in every country. We aren’t flying in airplanes or riding the transit. Things that used to seem so important now feel a bit irrelevant, like hair and nails, wardrobes, reality TV, parties, vacations, and even things like smarter brains, beautiful appearance, popularity or talent. I keep realizing how much we have in common as a human race. We are more alike than we realize.
One thing I have loved about this strange season of covid-19 isolation is the videos of celebrities in their homes. I keep noticing things like their microwave in the background, or whether the walls are empty or full. How fun is it to watch Jimmy Fallon have his girls help him with Thank you notes even when it goes off the rails, listening to his wife chuckle in the background as she runs the camera? I love it. Another favourite of mine was Andrew Lloyd Webber figuring out how to do facebook live and play All I Ask of You at his home piano (in C, not Dflat, he was sure to point out) with his ‘arthritic fingers’. So great.
However, some other things have become more clear in the last few weeks for me, and I wonder if the same has been true for you. The people in the margins are losing out in the plan that’s ‘good for all’.
My heart has ached for my friends with children with special needs who often thrive on routine and structure and don’t understand why they can’t go to school. In my observation, going through this isolation for families with children with complex needs has been incredibly challenging. It’s not just in caring for the child, but it’s also that the fears are different for these families. Often the children are immunocompromised. Often a stay in the hospital is a whole other ball game when you struggle to communicate your thoughts or don’t understand what’s happening. Some must surely even have thoughts about society running low on ventilators and fearing that their child wouldn’t be a priority. Ack, I could weep thinking of it all. The stress must be incredibly high, all with little respite and few breaks.
The same could maybe be said about the marginalized groups of single people, single parent families, refugee families, families where the children aren’t safe, or families where someone struggles with addiction and the consequences of that.
The other group that stands out to me these days is families living in poverty – the obvious kind and the more hidden kind of poverty. A friend said to me at the beginning of this that it might only be the rich that survive as they are the only ones who can afford to stock up on groceries. So many people have lost their jobs, and the fear of not being able to afford to live must surely add so much more burden in this already anxiety-ridden time. My husband and I were reflecting last week that ten years ago we would have been hooped, with no savings, massive debt-load, and little kids that relied on daycare so we could both work. We MUST take care of each other and use the resources we do have wisely, looking around with open hearts and minds to others.
This generally applies to my Canadian culture, but third world countries are another level of challenge – having a home to live in, having room to isolate, having money and resources for food, having medical care. Lord have mercy on us all.
I like the saying that Jody Carrington uses, that we are all just walking each other home. That just feels a bit more true and relevant these days than ever before, reaching across the span of the globe. Let’s do what we can to lift those in the margins, and let this time help us realize that it’s a small world after all.
I mean, we are doing the same things they are doing in India and Italy and New Zealand. We’re staying in our homes, and not going to the shops unless it’s for groceries. The amazing medical staff keep risking it all to help others, in every country. We aren’t flying in airplanes or riding the transit. Things that used to seem so important now feel a bit irrelevant, like hair and nails, wardrobes, reality TV, parties, vacations, and even things like smarter brains, beautiful appearance, popularity or talent. I keep realizing how much we have in common as a human race. We are more alike than we realize.
One thing I have loved about this strange season of covid-19 isolation is the videos of celebrities in their homes. I keep noticing things like their microwave in the background, or whether the walls are empty or full. How fun is it to watch Jimmy Fallon have his girls help him with Thank you notes even when it goes off the rails, listening to his wife chuckle in the background as she runs the camera? I love it. Another favourite of mine was Andrew Lloyd Webber figuring out how to do facebook live and play All I Ask of You at his home piano (in C, not Dflat, he was sure to point out) with his ‘arthritic fingers’. So great.
However, some other things have become more clear in the last few weeks for me, and I wonder if the same has been true for you. The people in the margins are losing out in the plan that’s ‘good for all’.
My heart has ached for my friends with children with special needs who often thrive on routine and structure and don’t understand why they can’t go to school. In my observation, going through this isolation for families with children with complex needs has been incredibly challenging. It’s not just in caring for the child, but it’s also that the fears are different for these families. Often the children are immunocompromised. Often a stay in the hospital is a whole other ball game when you struggle to communicate your thoughts or don’t understand what’s happening. Some must surely even have thoughts about society running low on ventilators and fearing that their child wouldn’t be a priority. Ack, I could weep thinking of it all. The stress must be incredibly high, all with little respite and few breaks.
The same could maybe be said about the marginalized groups of single people, single parent families, refugee families, families where the children aren’t safe, or families where someone struggles with addiction and the consequences of that.
The other group that stands out to me these days is families living in poverty – the obvious kind and the more hidden kind of poverty. A friend said to me at the beginning of this that it might only be the rich that survive as they are the only ones who can afford to stock up on groceries. So many people have lost their jobs, and the fear of not being able to afford to live must surely add so much more burden in this already anxiety-ridden time. My husband and I were reflecting last week that ten years ago we would have been hooped, with no savings, massive debt-load, and little kids that relied on daycare so we could both work. We MUST take care of each other and use the resources we do have wisely, looking around with open hearts and minds to others.
This generally applies to my Canadian culture, but third world countries are another level of challenge – having a home to live in, having room to isolate, having money and resources for food, having medical care. Lord have mercy on us all.
I like the saying that Jody Carrington uses, that we are all just walking each other home. That just feels a bit more true and relevant these days than ever before, reaching across the span of the globe. Let’s do what we can to lift those in the margins, and let this time help us realize that it’s a small world after all.
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