How To Be Better From A Pandemic
Now is not the time to relax.
I’ve been to quite a few hurricane parties. There is always an edge of cautious excitement followed by a period of sorrow for the hard work that will be needed from the cleanup. Covid seems very similar. This extends to the fear and planning. It can be seen in the eyes of those who venture out for supplies. The only real difference is that this storm can’t be seen and it will be here for the next year or two. Unlike a hurricane party, I invite anyone who has every sought improvement to view this time as an opportunity to assess life. Imagine the worse case — you get sick and die. Will it have been worth it to head into the office a few more days? Was that project you were feeling guilty about really worth your death?
Now hopefully, the above will come true for very few people but thinking like this can bring a stark reality into view. Most activities we choose to entertain are simply not worth very much. This is especially true if you weigh each individual activity against your possible death or severe illness. This mental practice is problem not healthy (normally), but that’s what makes this pandemic so eye opening.
I read about a funeral recently where a huge percentage of the people who attended ended up getting very sick from Covid with a few having died already. Can you imagine the frustration of dying because you attended a funeral? I would be livid.
But what’s the solution?
Unfortunately the only real solution is to be more concerned that you likely need to be. And since, none of us are entirely clear how this thing spreads - this means being pretty intense about it. When I go for a run now, I pull my shirt up over my face as I pass a person. I don’t really know how beneficial this is, but after reading about using a heavyweight cotton shirt as a last resort n95 mask which was still found to be 80% effective — it makes me feel better. But even though my worry is sky high, I still have this feeling of being scorned by society. I even come up with imaginary responses to being given a hard time. I’d respond, “I’d rather be weird and healthy than normal and sick.” But no one ever gives me a hard time and in truth they may even be appreciative for it. But all of this is vague and very much up in the air.
So here’s what we can do.
- Do less of your crutch — whatever it is. Drink less, smoke less, eat less. Whatever voice that has recently shown up arguing that — it’s a pandemic, let’s wile out — just ignore that voice. This is the time for strength, and I guarantee you that if any zombie apocalypse movie was accurate there would be scene after scene of people being wasted when suddenly confronted with their sinister future.
- Work on something that builds. Many jobs are repetitive and do what needs to be done each day. The knowledge gained is procedural and simply provides an understanding of how to deal with some situation if it ever happens again. Real work builds each day. Consider a runner — you can’t magically be faster, so you have to improve each day. Find work that provides this opportunity — ideally it would pay money.
- Brush your teeth — this just seems like one of those things that people will dismiss because who needs to worry about teeth when there’s a god damn pandemic. Maybe they’re right for the day, but you’ll be right overall. This applies to all daily health maintenance activities — they just have to be done. It also provides a nice baseline level of discipline like making the bed.
- Run, bike, jump — do more with your body. The human lungs works at about 50% capacity if you’re only walking around. In order to fully utilize your lungs, you need to push them. Our bodies only rise to the occasion that we choose for ourselves. So if your daily activity is to walk from bed to the couch and back. You’re lungs are like limp noodles and will be no match for the unfortunate possibility of catching Covid. After you’ve pushed yourself — push yourself harder. Exercising significantly improves your immune system, your well being, and basically everything good comes from movement. People who are overweight should get very little sympathy — their problems will literally get better by doing less eating and more moving.
- Ignore mainstream news. This is really hard for me. I get so incredibly angry at seeing politicians make horrible choices that it makes me worse for much of the day. On days I ignore them — I’m better. It’s sad that our best course of action is to ignore the world, but if you’re taking steps to protect yourself then the news will do nothing but make you feel worse.
Try to see the prosperous future that is coming. It may take a year or two. Our entire civilization may suffer from PTSD, but we will recover. And in the end there will be people who are better for it, and people who let it take them for a ride. The poor never have enough money while the rich never lose money. It’s a subtle difference, but one that everyone should fight for. Disappointingly we live in a country that puts money ahead of everything. If you choose to ignore this, it will be at your own peril. Solving the problem of money, even if a little, will make all other areas easier to endure. Seek the solution forever, not just for this week.
Perhaps in five years, people will have grown tired of sick people and the flu, their colds, and Covid will have been cured. Perhaps people will see the strides that can be taken to produce cleaner air, and that it’s not a bad idea to look forward rather than at our own feet. For those who look forward, this problem was seen a mile away. But for those who ignore the future, they will swell with pride as they discuss the efforts taken to solve our current dilemma. They’ll claim — who could have predicted this, but we did our best with the tools available. They’ll claim success and then go back to looking at their feet. If one thing (many should) comes from this, it should be that everyone looks up. People should see that our paths extend out forever and it is horribly misguided to ignore that we all must keep walking.
