In This Age
I sat down to write something all together different. I was going to finally finish my blog post on our trip to Puerto Rico, which was just weeks ago, but now feels like it occurred in a different age.
Puerto Rico, just as many countries and states, is dealing with COVID-19 cases that, at this point, could be in the double digits. Rhode Island is already there. Massachusetts in the triple digits. And the list goes on.
This is a very different time that we are living in and it is only going to continue to change for awhile.
COVID-19 slowly drifted into our lives and then all of a sudden, there was no escaping it. We all knew it was coming, we just didn’t know how it would and at what scale. The scary thing is, is we still don’t.
Asia, then Europe and now the Americas are dealing with this invisible menace. We are afraid of catching it, but for a lot of us, we are more afraid of being responsible for spreading it.
Hence what many of us our now doing: social distancing and isolation. I know I am not alone in that I am constantly wavering between feeling overwhelmed by what is happening, and also a sense of grounding in that as a global community, we are all in this together.
To know that at this very moment, the very same thoughts running through my head, are running through an Italian woman’s head thousands of miles away, or a neighbor’s.
And yet, the Italian woman’s worries are a little more serious than mine. At least at this moment. Knowing that we are potentially facing what Europe is facing, with a 10-14 day lag time, is incredibly scary.
We can only hope that the rest of our communities are reading about what is happening in Europe, and comprehending what measures we must take now, in order to mitigate some of the issues currently facing some European countries.
But we can only hope.
COVID-19 has already changed me permanently. I think it will change us all. Hopefully for the better. For those of us who hadn’t already, we are now realizing that there is no “us” vs. “them” in this world. This does not discriminate and doesn’t care about the figurative borders we put up.
Another pandemic, HIV/AIDS was, and still is, a real threat in the Caribbean. I became fascinated by it growing up. Viruses are interesting. How they move and work their way around the globe.
They look for perfect hosts, they find super hosts, and then they find their way into every community, every socioeconomic background. They mutate, trying to evade detection.
The Coronavirus is, unfortunately, very interesting and seems incessant in its thirst to conquer us. We must do everything in our power to stop it. We can’t feel that we are overreacting when we are taking the steps necessary to slow it’s growth, or at least “flatten the curve.”
Other countries have gone through it. We already know how this can turn out.
So for now, I am following all the precautions laid out by the CDC and all the other, trusted organizations that know what they are talking about.
I returned to Twitter after a couple of years of hiding from it. I follow the hash tags that are keeping me up to date with information. I probably follow them a little too much. My journalistic instincts are in full force right now.
We’re all in this together. Follow the precautions. They might seem too much right now, but when you hear about what we potentially will face in the coming weeks, what we’re are going through now is child’s play.
And if you need someone to talk to, I have Facetime, WhatsApp and Skype. I am here for you. Hopefully you can be there for me.