Costco was no busier than usual, people stopping in after work, families with kids – pretty typical for a weekday.  But just beneath the calm exteriors, there was some uncertainty.  I heard a gentleman talking on the phone about how everyone seemed pretty calm right now and at the same time a stock person was talking to a customer about how they would be out of toilet paper until Saturday morning.  It’s Wednesday.  Not sure why everyone is making a run on toilet paper (no pun intended), but it’s a serious shortage.  It’s part of what is making things weird right now.

I’ve been watching the news for a while, people wearing masks, vacationers leaving their cruise ships and going straight to quarantine sites, Italy being on a complete lock down.  It seems so far away and very surreal and in typical mid-western fashion, people here remain pragmatic and maybe slightly stoic.  We’ll deal with whatever we need to deal with whenever we need to deal with it.

It occurred to me that I needed to write about this, talking about the progression of this phenomenon in my community, from my perspective, an event I certainly don’t remember in my lifetime.  Will scientific progress make a difference or will it be like pandemics of the past and affect everyone in some way?  Again, it’s surreal enough that it’s hard to take in.  Will people take precautions seriously?  I have to admit that my outlook is that if we follow directions, work to keep things sanitized and keep washing our hands we’ll be ok.  It’s hard to imagine otherwise.

I tend to think of strange things at times like this, like social impact.  If everyone has to self-quarantine or isolate, what will happen?  Will families get closer or will they isolate further within their isolation?  Will they be glued to media and worse yet, social media?   Will they keep their dark sense of humor about this event?  I have to admit I’ve chuckled over some silly memes and posts from friends.  Humans are funny that way.  We try to make light of a serious situation to lower the stress a bit.  But as more and more people are affected, will that change?

It became a little more real today as my supervisor called me this morning to talk about how we could continue to teach our kids remotely if school were called off.  This is new for everyone and everyone is scrambling.  How will this affect the travel industry, the service industry, education, the health industry?  There’s an assumption, that everyone has access to the internet and devices.  This is not true.  Some school students at every level will be left out if we only focus on technology as the answer or means to continue education.  Are we going to work together or against each other as we figure out how to  deal with this new normal for an undetermined amount of time? Maybe this is happening because we need something to bring us all together again.  Why is it that it takes a tragic event or crisis to figure out what’s really important in life and bring us all together?  Is this one of those times?  Do we have any real leadership that will help us get through this, not only logistically but inspirationally?  Will they be empathetic or distant?  Can we all finally let go of partisan thinking and begin thinking of us as the UNITED States and take time to care about everyone, not just a person who agrees with us?

Right now my family and friends are fine.  It hasn’t touched me personally.  I’m hoping that it doesn’t and praying for those that it does.  My plan is to chronicle this event as it unfolds in my little world, and perhaps others from across the country will do the same.  It’s important to document the good, the bad and the ugly as we experience this historical event.  In the meantime, stay healthy my friends.