A Crown Seder

Covid taught us many lessons. How will we convey them to later selves and future survivors? Jews have a Passover seder, a ritual meal designed to tell the story of the Children of Israel’s escape from slavery, 3500 years’ ago.

I propose a Crown Seder. A ceremonial dinner where lessons meant to last for generations are passed on to children, with stories, songs, games that promote empathy, compassion, and a personal duty to action. “Crown” for the novel coronavirus.

A seder under quarantine, a century ago. Passover seder for newly arrived Jewish immigrants at Ellis Island, circa 1920, organized by the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. YIVO.

What lessons of the 2019 Novel Coronavirus experience must be passed along, lest we forget?

Dear Future:

I want generations to remember refrigerated trucks full of occupied body bags.

I want generations to remember the safety rituals of hand washing, social distancing, contact tracing, masking, double masking, ventilation, surface cleaning, hand sanitizer.

I want generations to remember the loneliness of self-isolation, the yearning for sacrificed human touch.

I want generations to remember boarded up windows as shopkeepers, restaurants, clubs, and theaters closed for the duration. And their workers struggled to survive without a paycheck.

I want generations to remember students grabbing internet in fast food parking lots.

I want generations to remember why public health matters. (and that climate change is a public health issue).

I want generations to remember that the novel coronavirus crossed the species barrier because humans are an invasive species.

I want generations to remember that healthy government saves lives. Accountable, competent.

I want generations to remember strong cities and economies save lives. That Chinese business and government erected a working pandemic hospital in a week.

I want generations to remember we are interdependent.

I want generations to remember that cognitive biases can kill. And that systems compensate for them. Or compound them.

I want generations to remember that effective journalism enables appropriate trust in institutions.

I want generations to remember that 20th century wars were bloody but civilization made war less common and less bloody with time. And that we can do the same for disease.

I want generations to remember the preventable deaths from covid. And the failures and sins that caused them.

I want generations to remember that memes and their propagators endangered countries.

I want generations to appreciate thought and the differences between
facts and truth,
opinions and expertise,
anecdotes and evidence,
faith and trust.

I want generations to acknowledge maskirovka and other tactics that intentionally separate people from reality, from trust, from community.

I want generations to remember that it took patient public investment of billions of dollars and euros and yuan over decades into science education, research, and communication to create the people and tools and industries that let us design, make, and manufacture billions of vaccinations in record time.

I want generations to remember how, in their desperate helplessness, ordinary people stepped up. Making masks and giving them away. Turning booze distilleries into sanitizer factories. Food banks and Meals on Wheels doubling and tripling and quadrupling the families their volunteers served.

🥯:

• So, what do you want the future to recall?
• What knowledge and wisdom will help future generations survive?
• How can we keep these stories and rituals relevant?