From Medium: “There is something else, something that worries me, about what’s coming.
Just as with the physical safety and preparation of most Americans, it seems to be working on a sort of delay, maybe because we are a country so used to denialism and fantasizing. First we thought we didn’t need to stock up, and then we were all stocking up, leading to huge lines and hoarding. Even now, only 26% of Americans have changed their daily lives in a major way due to the pandemic.
So it should not be surprising that this next stage of preparation has perhaps not even crossed people’s minds.
The preparation I am speaking of is not physical, but emotional and spiritual.
For the most part, we are still seeing a lot of discussion about the difficulties of living under virtual quarantine, debates about what is fully safe and what isn’t, and lots and lots of humor. What we are not seeing, however, is much awareness of what is coming…
Right now, our priority is figuring out how to handle living alone or how to handle living with kids or making sure we have enough social interaction. In a month, we are likely to be handling a completely different reality. And if we take our cue from other places that have mishandled this virus as badly as we have, we would do well to start preparing our stock, not just of physical needs like food, but emotional needs like strength, resolve, and the ability to grieve.”
