The Pandemic Project - Volume 3

Emotion of the Moment: March 17, 2020 Kevin Edward In these days where our thoughts and actions are so thoroughly dominated by the ongoing pandemic, I find myself cycling through various emotions: despair, disgust, disbelief, curiosity, hope, and pride. The emotion of the moment is usually triggered by the current story being related on network or cable news, radio, or in actual conversations with others. On progressively rare occasions, the feeling is sparked by personally witnessing the behaviors of others or even myself. With social distancing and staying home as much as possible, this has quickly become the least frequent of the triggers.

The despair is rooted in the bombardment of data about hospital beds, ventilators, and mortality rates. It sprouts into disgust with politicians who change their tone, their tune, and their stated intentions; they rewrite their own histories confident that many will have short memories or a willingness to turn a blind eye. It grows into disbelief with reports of segments of the population who don’t take the situation seriously or approach it selfishly by continuing to gather in large groups. These people are either ignorant of the reality of the circumstances, or worse yet, they understand the consequences of their behavior and literally do not care if others are stricken as a result. This attitude baffles and sickens me.

The curiosity comes from the sheer number of unknowns that we face as a community, state, country, and world. No one knows how this will shake out or how long it will last. Will there be enduring impacts on various segments of society?

How will this change education in the future? Business? Government? Medicine? The number of people and professions that will continue to work from home? The list could go on to include all aspects of human interaction. I wonder who the next person will be to get sick. Will it hit someone I love? Will it get me?

The hope is generated by witnessing people from all walks of life pulling together (or sometimes apart in this case) to help others. Food is being delivered to those who cannot go out to get it; students are having the contents of their lockers brought to their homes since they can longer enter their schools; public service announcements are broadcast touting the lifesaving importance of hand washing and social distancing. Adult sons and daughters are making daily calls to their elderly parents to check in on them.

Then there is pride. From what I have witnessed, the vast majority of people are doing what they can to help minimize the spread of this virus and the impact it is having on the human race. I am a teacher. I can’t articulate how proud I am of the administrators, faculty, and staff of the district I call home. From food deliveries to an abrupt shift in methods of teaching and learning, everyone is coming together to help our students, their families, and each other. My brother-in-law is a nurse. He puts himself in harm’s way to tend to the sick. I’m in awe of dedicated men and women like him who put their own welfare at risk to care for those who cannot care for themselves.

It’s true that tragedies bring out the best and worst in human nature. This pandemic is certainly doing so. Most stories that capture the world’s attention are quick hitters; they occur and then we deal with the aftermath. This situation is different.

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