Hope, Love, and Soap — A Message to the World from a 9 Year Old Boy
Well, this coronapocalypse sure has turned out to be a mess. It’s likely that you are sequestered to your home, hopefully working but possibly not, just trying to figure out the next right thing to do. And if you are in that situation I want to offer a mantra, conjured by my 9 year old son, to help you get through this time: Hope, Love, and Soap.
A Profoundly Simple Idea
As with most of the best ideas it is a simple one, borne from the mind of a 9 year old boy, who just wants everyone to be ok. I’m not even really sure where it came from. We were talking about all things Covid-19 and he just offhandedly mentioned it. But isn’t that what kids do? You don’t know they’re listening, taking everything in until one day they recite back verbatim the story you told someone on the phone or the fight you had with your spouse in the other room. And sometimes, they stop you in your tracks with the simplest, most profound ideas.
This idea is just that, profoundly simple, which is the beauty of it. If we are going to get through the situation we are facing, we need to hope for the best, love each other, and wash our hands, with soap from now on you filthy animals.
So often in our world we over-complicate things. We look to the grandest vision or the biggest challenge when all we really need is to connect with people, lend a hand (in this case a virtual one), and love one another. And sometimes it takes a child, whose mind is unencumbered by worries of jobs and mortgages and logistics, to point out to us that the solution can be a simple one.
Just Keep Skipping
If you know my son, this is par for the course. He is whip-smart, precocious in his capacity for empathy, devilishly handsome (I’m biased but it’s still true), and makes everyone around him smile because of those things. For Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, my wife had our kids write what their “dream” would be. His dream was to create an app that allowed people to give virtual hologram hugs “because not everyone has someone who loves them” and he wanted to be able to share his love with them. Seems like an even better idea in this time of social distancing. Oh, and he wants to win a Nobel Peace Prize.
While I grew up a sporty kid, he couldn’t care less about sports. He likes to sit with me and watch football occasionally but it is more about the sitting with me than it is the sport. If you asked him about Steph Curry, or Mike Trout, or Tom Brady, he would probably say they were football players because he knows I like football but he would more likely answer “I don’t know dad. Can I show you this new world I built in Super Mario Maker?”
And he skips. Not as much as he used to but when we start to walk somewhere he usually skips a couple times before he starts walking. And it makes my heart beam. I know he won’t do that forever and that is why I love it so much now.
Because of his larger than life personality and his determination to make the world a better place, we have told him for several years that he is going to change the world. We don’t know how but we know that he is destined for something special. He wants to be an engineer and a scientist so maybe it will be designing a new way to get potable water to those who need it. Or maybe he will become a YouTuber who helps spread the joy of science and learning, like his favorite guy Mark Rober. Or maybe it will be winning a Nobel Peace Prize. But for now, maybe he will just help our family and anyone lucky enough to know him realize that there is still hope and love and good in the world and that we have to fight for those things, especially in this extraordinarily difficult time.
Hope Will Not Be Cancelled
For the pragmatists out there, I understand that “hope is not a strategy” and this idea is not going to manufacture more ventilators or employ more staff for the under-resourced ICUs across the country. But for the vast majority of us, that is not our job. Our job is to take care of ourselves and those around us and hope that those whose job that is have the ability and resources to do so. We can also love our neighbors by producing masks for healthcare workers who need them. And we can do our part not to become their next patient by washing our hands with actual soap and not touching our faces, which is far harder than any of us ever imagined.
I also believe that ideas like hope and love can actually be practical. Without them, would distilleries be making hand sanitizer? It would be far easier for them to ramp up production, knowing that they would make a mint right now from people drowning their sorrows. But some have chosen to do otherwise because they hope for the future, when this virus has been eradicated, and are doing their part to help get us there more quickly.
Maybe I’m being Pollyannish and there is more to it than this. Maybe we should hunker down, prepare for the inevitable calamity that will result from the near shutdown of our economy and wait for the sky to fall. But I happen to believe that there is more good in the world than bad because my family needs me to believe that. And even though this is going to suck for a bit, things will get better and eventually return to some semblance of normal. I also happen to believe that John and Paul were right when they penned one of my son’s favorite songs: All You Need Is Love.
Parting Thoughts
I will leave you with this:
Hope — Hope that we are doing enough to defeat this virus and that better things are in store for you, your family, and the world.
Love — Love your family, your friends, your neighbors. From a distance for now but know that staying connected, even virtually, during this time is as important as ever.
Soap — Can we all just agree that we are going to wash our hands from now on? Pretty please? I’m looking at you guys.
And when this is all said and done, or at least enough that we can gather again without fear of spreading this particular disease, my son says he is going to throw a big party with cake, ice cream, and all the fixins to celebrate “smashing this disease into atoms” and everyone is invited. Just be prepared to sanitize your filthy hands before you come into our house.
Originally published at https://dadletteroffice.com on March 31, 2020.
