And still, Don't Panic

I've been debating the usefulness of yet another post about the coronavirus. The first one I made still feels relevant: handwashing, don't panic. However, since events have escalated in the last few hours, it's on my mind. 

I'll keep saying not to panic. I'd be saying that if the survivors were getting all bitey and mindless. Panic helps no one. Calm preparedness, on the other hand... 

So here's what is happening in my neck of the woods. Schools have been canceled for the next three weeks (with the option to keep them closed longer) and online education may be happening. We shall see how that plays out. No one was really ready for this, it feels like. My local school had sent out a survey for parents literally hours before the governor made an announcement that the schools would close ASAP here in Ohio. The survey was for evaluation of readiness, and included questions like 'will there be adult supervision at home during the day?' and 'does the student have access to the internet/a computer?' Here at the Nut House, we are ready for online school. The question remains: is online school ready for us and all the other students?

I'm not a prepper. I keep a very well stocked pantry compared to some, but it pales compared to others. Could we be ok for a 2-week quarantine? Oh, yeah. Stuck in here for a month? Eh, we'd be fine but the kids might not like the meal choices by the end. Three weeks of a bored teen boy honing his culinary skills? Uh. I need to do some shopping. As I'd expected, hand soaps, toilet paper (hah!), and hand sanitizer are thin on the ground for buying locally. On the other hand, I was not expecting the complete dearth of chocolate chips. I'd looked at the first three items out of idle curiousity - we're good. But chocolate chips?!? the world is truly ending. 

I was driving home from work, where we are doing some odd things to prevent disease transmission (desk shuffling in an open office really seems like an act of futility), and I was contemplating that this may be one of those pivot points in history where you can literally watch the world change in front of your eyes. It's not the disease itself. I don't have enough data - and I don't think we will ever have enough - to truly look at the statistics of how many infected versus death rate, and so on. It's frustrating, but there it is. Resources were squandered. What we do know, however, is that this illness touches lightly, if at all, on the young. On the elderly, on the ill? It has the potential to be very bad. It could very well overwhelm a healthcare system already stretched to it's breaking point. However, I'm looking past the physical to the emotional. The impact that quarantines, school closings, event cancellations have on the economic system is going to be profound. Already the impact is being felt at the grocery store, as I found above when I couldn't secure the ingredients for my son's favorite cookies. We got butterscotch chips, instead. Improvise, adapt, overcome. 

What this is going to do is force changes. It's going to shake up the systems in place, and where things will fall when it stops shaking? Who knows. I have hope. I always have hope, but two things from today made me smile and know that the world is going to make it through this. First, mere moments after the official email went out from our local school district, there was a post in the town facebook page offering free lunches to any students who drop by the local deli while school is out. This is co-sponsored by the deli and a local ministry. Heartwarming to see the community step up to the plate with things like this. Kids in this area are not as likely to be dependent on school meals, but all too often that is the case. The second thing was my Ginja Ninja telling me she had to call a work friend. Her friend is a single mother of two, and my daughter is going to offer babysitting to enable their mother to make a couple of work shifts at least. She can't cover for all of them - she works, too! but she felt the need to connect and help with the kids who will now be home all day. I suspect that all over the country, people are doing little things to take care of one another. Community, ravaged by the global economy and slow distancing the internet allows us by pulling us away from forced social contact, is going to come back. For better or for worse. 

I'd like to think it will be better. After it gets worse for a while. I have no illusions this is going to be easy. As I alluded to above, the emotional impact is going to be long-lasting. The breaking of the trust - however blind and misplaced it may have been - in systems is going to ripple outward in ways no one can anticipate. Change is happening. I can see it. What I can't see is where this shift of the course of history will end.