Life After Corona — Anything is Possible.
A friend recently said, “we know when we come out of this quarantine, society is going to need to be rebuilt. We can all have a say, if we choose, in how it gets rebuilt.” Her words changed my whole outlook from one of pure bleakness to one of excitement and curiosity. Ok, not my entire outlook by any means, but at least it added excitement and curiosity to the mix.
Yes, I still hate being quarantined. No, I do not feel gratitude for the corona virus. However, I now have something I can look forward to beyond “when will this be over.” There is now some bigger purpose to all of this self isolation, fear, and sadness.
I try to imagine the ways in which the world will be different. How has it already changed in these two months? How much will it have changed when this is over? I try to answer, “And what will be needed? How can we rebuild?”, but I think we have no idea. The best thing to do (for me) is to stay informed. Learn as much as I can about what is going on. I am not the kind of person who wants to dissociate from world events or the news. Then when the time comes, when there is a vaccine or a really good treatment, I will know what to do.
Here are some of the main changes (good ones) within our society that I am noticing, and ideas for what we might do when we are out of this, to continue these differences:
1 — The environment: I know everyone has been talking about this — clean air, more animals coming out. I live in LA and I can see further out into the ocean than I ever have in one direction, and out into the hills in the other. The skies are blue, I hear birds chirping, and I hear the ocean (which used to be drowned out by cars and people). -
Going forward — Pollution and the harm we are causing to our environment has always been theoretical. Yes there is a ton of data, and facts. Not just evidence, but actual valid proof that we are destroying our planet, but it is happening very slowly and invisibly in terms of our perception (although not slowly or invisibly at all in terms of facts, data, and science!). Now after only a few weeks we see how much nicer our planet can be. I hope this motivates us to actively take steps to clean up our environment and live much more sustainable lives.
I have been eliminating plastic and as much single use as possible and now feel more motivated than ever to step this up. There is so much more to be done, and I hope we all get together to figure out both as individuals and businesses what more we can do.
2 — Choosing our leaders: Hopefully all of us (or a much larger majority) will realize that running a country is not an easy job. There are very serious consequences to who we elect. We want someone who has an actual track record, experience, and intelligence.
Going Forward: We (I am not included in that we, lest anyone think I ever thought that insane orange fool was okay for even one second) will not be taken in by a strongman who appeals to an innate racism, nationalism, and sexism. And to be a kinder, as I know those are not the only reasons people voted for this creature, we will see through cult-like figures promising to save us when we are down. We will be able to look at their comments, behavior, track records and not be easily fooled. We will realize there are real world consequences to who we elect. God I hate him…I don’t even need to say his name for you to know who I mean.
3 — No more small talk. We all know this, the conversation has deepend. While we are not there in person, we are not wasting our time on small talk. When we ask “How are you?,” we now mean it. When we answer “How are you?,” we answer honestly. We are really enjoying one another’s company. Whether we are meeting a new friend in a virtual social group, or catching up with people we care about, the conversations go deep.
Going forward: This is a huge change to cultural behavior in the United States. What if we start small and while we don’t want to be the annoying person who pours out our whole life story to our barista, try answering honestly when a friend or even an acquaintance asks you how you are. Let’s try really talking to one another at parties. Once this is over I am going to throw smaller parties where we take time to talk to one another. I once went to a small breakfast where the host asked us 5 questions from the 36 questions to fall in love list. That can also be a great way to get to know people not related to dating love only. We all felt like we had gotten to know one another a lot better after the breakfast. And no one was bored.
4 — FUN! We have been taking more time to just have fun. There are virtual dance parties and online game nights. I am not saying we never went out to parties or bars, played games, and just had fun, but we are treating it as more of a priority. And we are really enjoying ourselves. Think how often we used to go to bars or parties and leave quickly complaining how boring they were.
Going Forward: I think a lot of the reasons we would complain we were bored was because very often there was not genuine human interaction. Hopefully, we will appreciate when we can be together again so much that we will genuinely interact — really talk to and listen to one another. Enjoy being fun and silly together too.
5 — The loneliness of not being able to relate to one another. One of the many things I loved about high school and college, despite the fact everyone of course had their own unique background, was that we were all going through so many of the same things. We were taking classes that we were stressed about. We had the summers off. We had to take exams. Once in college we could all relate to the anxiety of freshman year. After college, we went our separate ways. We went through so many of our own traumas and excitements that many people could not relate to. Even if it is a relatable experience such as a bad breakup or even worse the death of a parent, the timing was often not aligned. One person could be grieving a loss while another just got engaged, sold their company, or had a baby. Now we are all going through this huge trauma together.
Going forward: Any person, anywhere in the world, of any demographic will be able to talk about their life during this time and we will be able to relate (of course with differences in severity but still). We will all be able to relate to the joy of a vaccine, or treatment, or whatever it will be that gets us out of this. And we will all be able to relate to the first time back at a restaurant or a party.
6 — Declining Nationalism. First of all — unpopular opinion? Maybe. But countries don’t really exist. We literally made them up. There is no such thing as an actual border. Yes culture is important, and should not be lost or denied. And while we do need different countries, governments, states etc for multiple reasons that could be another article, (such as imagine if Trump was a world leader with no global checks and balances) the whole nationalist mindset of a certain country “winning” is becoming irrelevant. Do you really care which country comes up with the vaccine as long as you and your loved ones get it? Also, if corona breaks out in one country with the way we travel, we see how easily it can spread.
The scientists get this, and are collaborating across labs, companies, borders to save all of us. The virus will not be contained by our made up borders. We only can return to a safe, healthy and fun life by working together.
Going forward: Patriotism, as in an appreciation of what you love about your country, is one thing, but wanting your country to be best (or thinking it is) means that other countries are “worse.” And the people in those countries are somehow less deserving. We are not going to solve corona by competing. We need all countries to collaborate equally to wipe this out. Hopefully this will be how we approach problems going forward. We will also hopefully not turn our backs when people in other countries are suffering. The whole us vs. them is cruel and doesn’t benefit anyone. We are really seeing how much we affect one another.
7 — Exposure of class and racial inequalities. Yes, we always knew these were serious issues but now we are seeing how much worse some people are affected by a pandemic than others. Black people are 4x more likely to die of the coronavirus. Many people are risking their lives daily, and many people who have been living paycheck to paycheck can’t feed their families. This, like many of the above topics, could easily be a full article, so I know I am not doing it justice here, but it is still one of the most important things I hope we work on as we return to our “new normal.”
Going forward — I wish I had a neat solution for this. I just hope the level of exposure these issues have as we realize a whole class of workers (grocery store workers, janitors in the hospital) who have been overlooked become well paid, highly respected and valued. Hopefully we not only say we are reevaluating how we value people, but we are coming up with actual solutions.
8 — Problems with the healthcare system (in the United States). I don’t think this needs much more explanation. It has been written about in depth and anyone living here in the United States knows about the problems. Summary — people should not be denied health care because they cannot afford it.
Going Forward — Let’s get the current administration out. Let’s work towards a better plan, system, and make it a priority.
Overall, these are some of the issues that have been a part of our world for a long time, and now we can start thinking about what needs to be rebuilt and how. I hope we can get started sooner than later. Quarantine sucks. But at least we can prepare to start being productive and watch and see how things are developing. Because we will be out of this and able to go back in the world again.
