Don’t Deny People The Chance To Be Heroes

The flaw in rugged individualism.

Photo by Craig McLachlan on Unsplash

Some of us can do this. I don’t mean to be arrogant, but there are people like me who live alone and don’t need help quarantining.

It can become a point of pride to wash all your clothes in your tiny bathroom sink instead of risking contamination in the communal laundry room. Ask me how I know.

You can also order everything online instead of letting your neighbors run errands for you because you always take care of yourself.

Photo by Maddi Bazzocco on Unsplash

You can become your own one-person bastion against the virus, self-distancing the bejesus out of the little bugger until it dies the ugly death it deserves. But while you’re showing the microbe who’s boss, you might be forgetting something.

Everybody needs to feel good about themselves. Everybody needs a sense of purpose.

And in this dark time when folks are alone with nothing but their thoughts and unpaid bills to keep them company, or kids begging for a sleepover with friends you have to insist they can’t have, or a spouse who’s battling insomnia…