Month: March 2020

The internet has been the driving force in American culture for about 30 years now. It’s the best thing that ever happened to us. It’s also the worst thing that’s ever happened to us.

There are so many benefits to having instant information at our fingertips. You hungry? Type your order in the app, the food will be ready when you get there. No waiting. Heck, they’ll even deliver it to you. Miss your favorite TV show? You don’t have to wait for the rerun. It’s there on demand any time. Need to renew your driver license? Do it on the website. No waiting in line at the DMV. Nope, you don’t have to wait for just about anything anymore.

And therein lies the problem, the source of so much frustration for all of us when it comes to dealing with the threat of the Covid 19 virus. We have run into something we can’t fix by pulling out our phones and clicking on the app. We are told to stay in our homes. We are told to keep our social distance from each other. But most painfully of all, we are told to wait. And we can’t stand it. Patience, the ability to wait, has been bred out of us. We simply don’t know how to do it anymore.

What? The virus may not peak and run its course until June or July? We might have to keep this self quarantine stuff up for another 4 to 5 months? We can’t comprehend that. Even President Trump can’t wait. He is publicly setting Easter Sunday as a target to begin reopening the country. Yet every time he mentions that prospect, you can see the health officials behind him wince a bit. I picture a thought bubble above their heads saying “please don’t say that….not gonna happen.” The frenzy in our grocery stores is evidence that we just can’t wait for the supply to catch up to the demand. We have to hoard. Let the next guy fend for himself.

We’re going to have to relearn this virtue the hard way. The virus isn’t going anywhere. There is no vaccination and won’t be for awhile. The economy will likely continue to decline in the short term. People will continue to lose their jobs in the immediate future. But there is a corner to be turned, and we will turn it. We just have to wait for it.

So take a very……….deep……….breath…………now exhale slowly…………..let yourself relax. Realize this: You are healthy. You have people you love and who love you. God’s beautiful world still unfolds around you. There will be many tomorrows to pursue your hopes and dreams. Everything that can be done is being done by the brightest medical minds on our planet. You have no control over that. So don’t worry about it.

We won’t win this battle with fear, lack of cooperation, panic and anxiety. We will win it by waiting it out. Patience is our best weapon. Find it deep down in your arsenal. It may save your life.

In my 69 years on this earth, I have never seen anything quite like this….a virtual shutdown of American social activity. We’re going to struggle with this. Human beings are social by nature. To be told to avoid public gatherings is almost impossible for us to truly comprehend.

We could grasp the cancellation of major events. That was a no brainer. But we are only now beginning to feel the real impact on our individual lives. No playgrounds? Movie theaters? Restaurants? Churches? What about weddings? Don’t visit hospitals? Basically stay on your own property.

And it gets more intimate than that. We’re told to give everyone “social distancing.” We’re even told not to touch our own face. Some say it’s all hype. Others claim it’s worse than we think. Whom to believe? Social media is at the same time a blessing and a curse. It is now our most effective means of communication, while also serving as a launching pad for rumor and skeptic misinformation.

It doesn’t help that we can’t really grasp what this thing is, or how long we must deal with it. It’s like the flu, it’s not like the flu. You may only get a little sick, you may die. You may just be a carrier. Because most postponements have been in the neighborhood of two or three weeks, we want to believe we can just wait this thing out for a little while, like waiting for a tornado watch to expire. Yet health officials are using words like July and August.

As a boy I remember the collective worry that swept over the country during the Cuban missile crisis and the assassination of President Kennedy. As an adult I recall the angst of gas rationing in the 70’s, the twin towers in 2001 and the recession of 2008. Disturbing all, but nobody told us then we couldn’t go to school or that we have to stay six feet away from every other human. Small wonder some are scared.

I am not among them. Smart, talented people are putting plans in place. Eventually the precautions will catch up to and surpass the threat. In the mean time history shows we are nothing if not adaptable. We will adjust to picking up our restaurant food outside the building, to watching church on the internet, to washing our hands 20 times a day. We will still keep in touch with our friends, rediscover our families within our homes, perhaps turn more earnestly to our Creator for assurance. Life is not worse. It’s just different. Really different.

In the end it will pull us all closer together, even as we must stay further apart.

My son is 36 years old. My daughter is 34. Neither one of them can remember a world without the internet. I confess I’m having a little trouble remembering it myself. Was there really a time when you could drive your car without a phone ringing in your pocket or purse? When you couldn’t order your food until you actually got to the restaurant?

A time when you were watching an old TV show and wondered whether one of the actors was still alive but had no way of finding out? A time when you weren’t sure when the football game started or what channel it was on so you had to check the sports section of the newspaper? A time when you actually HAD a newspaper? A time when you had to go out of your house and speak to your neighbors and friends to learn all the latest gossip? When you had to slip into the dressing room at the clothing store and try on that new pair of pants before buying?

A time when you used a dictionary to look up the meaning of a word? When you had to call the local movie theater and listen to a recording of all the showtimes? When you had to watch the local TV channels to get the latest news and weather? When you looked at your watch to know what time it is? When you had to use alarm clocks and stopwatches? When you turned on the radio to listen to your favorite music? When you had to sit down and write a letter to someone and put it in the mailbox and wait days for it to be delivered? When you needed a camera to take a picture, and then had to wait for the film to be developed?

A time when you had to look for a phone booth to make a call if you were away from home? When you had to depend on night clubs or churches or your workplace to find someone you might be interested in dating? When there was no such thing as “on demand” and you had to wait to watch your favorite show until the TV network aired it in its weekly time slot? When you had to be at your home to open your garage door, or turn on your lights, or adjust your thermostat? When you had no generic computer voice to whom you could address a question? When you boarded your dog and you couldn’t watch it all day on a live camera? When you needed a typewriter to type an essay like this?

A time when you had to go to a store to shop? When you needed textbooks to go to school? When you didn’t have to worry that information on how to make a bomb was available with the click of a button? When there was no such thing as “sexting”? When you had to keep a paper log to know how much money was in your checking account? When you actually had to laugh out loud instead of writing LOL? When there was no such word as “selfie”? When we didn’t spend hours of our lives waiting for computers to boot up? When we thought the only definitive source of information was something called an encyclopedia?

Did such a world really exist? And if so, how did we all survive it?