now is the time for all good people
Alex, social-distancing. it ain’t easy for a newly-licensed driver.
Y’all.
Are these crazy times, or what?
Our family is home this week — Marcus’ employer has asked its staff to work from home indefinitely. And as far as Alex, it’s actually scheduled spring break time for her school, which is good. But. Last Friday, Alex got her driver’s license (yay!), but she also has a mother who won’t let her drive anywhere, in light of this pandemic (boooo). Needless to say, from her point of view, this feels like a particularly cruel time to be homebound. I feel some guilt about it, but not enough guilt to let her go to the mall. Sorry, kid.
I was talking to Marcus this morning, and I mentioned to him that this feels like one of those apocalyptic movies — not because I think this is the end of humanity (I don’t, I have great faith that at some point a vaccine will be developed), but because this feels like the first time in my life the entire planet is preoccupied with a singular event. Normally — if there’s a hurricane, say, or a famine, or some other life-threatening thing — it’s somewhat localized, and while the rest of the world might rally to help the affected location, for the most part, the rest of the world goes on about their daily lives.
Not so much this time.
But having said that, if there’s one thing I’ve learned about those movies about global catastrophes (as well as having to lived through a localized one), it’s this: while the going gets tough, people rally around each other. During Hurricane Harvey, people didn’t wait for the city government to act, they just grabbed their bass boats and started rescuing people. They opened up warehouses and started sheltering people. Restaurants began feeding and warming first responders. People just did. And there’s no reason to believe that people won’t just do right now.
With apologies to that old learn-to-type saw, now is the time for all good people to come to the aid of their planet.
If you’ve been following Chookooloonks for any amount of time, you know that I’m a huge proponent of using your skills and/or superpowers in service of others. Right now, it might be difficult to figure out how to do that, given most of us in the world are practicing social distancing and social isolating. But we need to get creative — like this superhero who decided to host workout sessions from his apartment building rooftop. There’s got to be a way.
For my part, I’ve got 2 ideas in mind:
1). I’m going to try to post something every weekday here on the blog to bring a little light or joy to your computer screen. I don’t know what this means for This Was A Good Week posts on Friday, but I’m going to try to keep those going too. My hope is to be able to share a little something — some good news, a good memory, a good thought — that puts a smile on your face for at least a moment while you’re dealing with this.
2) I’m going to host Light Hour on Facebook Live on Fridays at 4pm central US time. Think of it as “happy hour,” except alcohol is optional. Follow me on Facebook to be notified when I go live, and we’ll log on to check in with each other. I’ll tell you about books I’m reading that are helping me go through this, funny things I’m experiencing, share activities that are helping our family through this (like, for example, sprucing up our back garden so we have a cozy space to spend some time outside. Spending time outside creating a pretty space was really therapeutic, and I strongly recommend). Hopefully, you’ll share the same. The only thing required is you bring your favourite beverage (alcoholic or not) and your open heart. Dress comfy.
Thats it for now, lovelies. Hang in there. We’ll get through this together.
Soundtrack: Come together, as performed by Gary Clark Jr. & Junkie XL
A little about the new book.