Penny Thoughts: What We Take Away from Our COVID-19 Venture
The stunning shock of horror, devastation and anger the United States experienced on Sept. 11, 2001, is something that is still quite vivid in most of our memories. Even though it was nearly two decades ago, we can vividly recall where we were, what we were doing, and what we felt.
A wave of patriotism swept our nation, the likes of which we have not seen since WWII. Flags at every venue. Lapel pins of our American flag were worn in unbelievably plentiful amounts. And every imaginable combination of red-white-and-blue was displayed everywhere on a regular basis.
The citizens of these United States were unified once again – and it felt GOOD!
No need to recount the different kind of enemy we face today. We cannot see it without the aid of microscopes, but we can feel its wrath in how we try to live our lives.
As usual, we Americans have pulled together in new forms of practice which are anathema to us. We have stopped shaking hands, gathering in public places, even our churches, and we are keeping six feet from others, and God forbid that anyone of us should hug someone! All this to combat the unseen foe.
Regardless of the validity of the admonitions which have forced us into these absolutely UN-America prohibitions, we have abided by them for the sake of “winning the war.” We Americans are like that, regardless what others may say or think.
Yet, I reflect on how this experience with that unseen enemy might affect us in the long term and am prompted to the following series of questions:
What will happen to our spiritual practices? If we become used to not being able to attend our houses of worship we could fall off altogether and when able to attend again just have become so used to not attending that we do not go back. On the other hand, COVID-19 might re-affirm the deep-seeded bedrock of our faith.
What will happen to our social conventions? With the present strictures, we may never shake hands again, and perhaps not even fist bump. The “elbow tap” may replace the use of hands in greeting. Hugging may very well be a thing of the past. Alternatively, we may save hand greetings only for our family members and closest friends, but my surmise is that hugging will be for families only. The conventional greeting may just be a wave of the hand from a distance of five to six feet.
How will the entertainment industry be affected, particularly films and movies? With present technology, which allows us to watch films and television shows on our cell phones, further advances will present venues which we cannot even begin to imagine today but will alter our interaction and or understanding and appreciation of the arts. Live presentations and concerts may be seriously affected and Broadway shows may be presented in alternative media if at all.
How will the food service and restaurant industries respond to the “take out” mode? Our routine “night out” may be altered to a special “dine in” night at home with the take-out meals. Food preparation industries will not change essentially and may present new job possibilities. Going out to our favorite restaurants will see a different approach most certainly. One positive result, I believe, will be better home-cooking by different members of the family.
What will be the effect on our local pubs and “watering holes”? It does not seem to be a long shot to anticipate that having a drink at “Joe and Manny’s Long Horse Inn” might be concertedly adjusted. It would be folly to predict that they would never open again but it would seem that both approaches to and actions within “The Inn” are going to be different in many senses. Perhaps limits to drinks, limits to hours, or, Heaven forbid, even limits to the percentage of alcohol in the beverages might surface.
How will the restrictions which were implemented as a result of COVID 19 impact education? For me, this is the most important aspect of human life which will see change. We have known for some time now that online education is a most effective reality. With their closings now in effect, many school systems have turned to online teaching through computers. Colleges have done the same thing for a couple of decades with their approaches having such names as “blended learning” or “individualized learning”. It will take a new kind of educator, a new kind of curriculum and a new kind of philosophical approach, but it will be more effective in teaching students to think, which is or should be the primary goal of education.
How will the “Pandemic of 2020” impact our families? From our earliest Judeo-Christian concepts, and including Muslim concepts as well, the family is the foundation for a society. How the family develops both promulgates the society and protects its individual boundaries supported by that family. COVID 19 is going to test the cohesiveness of the individual family. It seems to me that larger families will ultimately survive much better since there is far more social interaction than in families with, say, an only child. But that observation is subjective and is framed by the fact that I come from a large family and with my wife have produced another large family. In the final analysis, nevertheless, it will be the families which either preserve our social order or witness its disintegration.
With all my musings and prognostications here, there is one thing of which I am certain, all of what we have known will change. The pre-Socratic philosopher Heraclitus posited this fact centuries ago when he declared, “Change is the only constant in the universe.”
The effectiveness of that “change” will be how we respond to it. It is my firm belief, consequently, that while some aspects of America will undergo revision, as change, because it IS America our nation will remain, as President Ronald Reagan said decades ago, “The Shining City on the Hill”.
WASH YOUR HANDS!!