Help is on the way Offering kindness to someone else will leave you less time to fret By: Melissa Martin Posted: 6:00 PM CDT Monday, Mar. 16, 2020

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 15/03/2020 (1700 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

On the Monday that everything seemed to come apart, which was just eight days ago now but feels like forever, a friend in Toronto wrote what I still think is one of the best darkly comic tweets about the whole situation: looking at the news, he reached for a quote from the movie Apollo 13, a scene after an explosion crippled the titular vessel.

“What do we got on the spacecraft that’s good?”

That’s the long and short of it really: 2020 started as a slog through hard news, and now it seems like everything is broken. The pandemic is surging, forcing the cancellation of just about everything. The economy is teetering on the edge. Global politics are a mess.

Oh yeah, and there’s climate change, lest we forget that’s still happening.

But to slip into cynicism at this juncture would be fatal, and also tragically near-sighted. Because there are still many things on this spacecraft we call Earth that are good, still many parts of the machine that are still sound and ready to continue their mission. Every single one of them starts with people.

To slip into cynicism at this juncture would be fatal, and also tragically near-sighted. Because there are still many things on this spacecraft we call Earth that are good, still many parts of the machine that are still sound and ready to continue their mission

In Italy, locked down and in crisis with police patrolling the streets, residents cluster on balconies to sing folk tunes and bang tambourines. In Seville, on the same day that Spain issues a total quarantine, a fitness instructor leads a class from a rooftop, shouting encouragement to participants doing jumping jacks at their windows.

Across Spain, minutes after the quarantine order was announced, citizens went to their windows and issued a loud ovation for all the health-care workers on the front lines of the crisis. Starting at 10 p.m. they clapped, and cheered, crying out “viva los medicos,” long live the doctors. Their gratitude reverberated through near-empty streets.

Other flames of spirit have been quieter, more intimate. On Monday, one Toronto resident, Seher Shafiq, tweeted about how she made a care package of toilet paper and butter tarts for an elderly neighbour, and left it at his front door; he replied with a note, saying that the thought alone makes his “life really worthwhile.”

 

wfpremovefromapp:

Our neighbour is quite elderly w/ mobility issues. Lives alone.

We left him some toilet paper & butter tarts at his door. Didn’t wanna see him, cuz, #SocialDistancing.

He wrote is this note back which literally says us thinking about him "makes his life really worthwhile".

1/2 pic.twitter.com/FeseqMYE96

— Seher Shafiq����‍♀️ (@seher_shafiq) March 16, 2020

:wfpremovefromapp

Across the world, there have been a thousand tiny acts of care and resilience like this already, or a million, and the world is only at the beginning of this journey. It will take many more to get through; acts small and large, charitable and entertaining, acts that mobilize people to give joy and support in whatever way they can.

It will take more than a village: it will take a world, a total commitment. Governments must act fast to smooth the turbulence; Canada could sure use a decisive move to mandate paid sick leave right now. Meanwhile, as the last week so vividly showed, the public expects the private sector to do its part to support workers, too.

But as Canada hunkers down to try and slow the upward spiral of infection, we may well find that the most effective short-term safety nets are the ones we string up together. As I wrote last week, people are the main first responders to each other; other institutions may be wealthier and more powerful, but they cannot be as granular.

So here are some ideas for things we can do, right now, to tie the safety net a little tighter.

Consider starting a private Facebook group for neighbours, whether in your building or on your street. (You can drop notes in mailboxes letting folks know where they can join in.) Make that a hub to check in with each other, where you can offer or ask for support as you need it — such as with sourcing diapers or an emergency roll of TP.

That group will also be a good place to offer babysitting, if you or someone in your family is able to offer babysitting. There will be many responsible teens with free time on their hands next week, while many families are scrambling to find safe care for their kids while they work. Helping ease that stress could mean the world.

Let’s help make sure that everyone can keep their pantry full and their bills paid, where we can.

Make a list of all the most vulnerable people you know, particularly seniors, folks with disabilities or people who are immunocompromised. Ask if they need anything, give them your number. Offer to do their grocery shopping or pick up their essentials. If you know of any elderly folks near you, leave that care package at their door.

Donate money, if you can afford it, especially to non-profits such as food banks that serve immediate need. The coming economic fallout from this crisis may well prove to do the most lasting damage to the greatest number of people. Many are already out of work, and it will almost certainly get worse before this is over.

So let’s help make sure that everyone can keep their pantry full and their bills paid, where we can.

As the mission of social distancing and staying home, where possible, drags on, many people will find themselves suffering from the isolation. It can be lonely. The time must be filled not only by productive activity, but also chances to connect with others in fun: organize an online book club or a live movie-watching group via text.

Above all, think of where your own skills lie, and how you can contribute them to others. The Earth, and the society we have built on it, is a little dented right now, a little under the weather. It’s easy to see the news and conclude that there’s not much left on it that’s any good; but that’s not true. We do have all that we need to get through.

Above all, think of where your own skills lie, and how you can contribute them to others.

Watching these strange days unfold I, too, kept reaching for a quote from the movie Apollo 13. Not the scene where NASA leaders were assessing the damage to the spacecraft, but one from near the climax, as the astronauts prepared to make a slightly shallow and perilous re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere.

In that scene, two men in the NASA control room turn to each other and predict, gloomily, that what could happen in the next minutes could be the greatest disaster the institution had ever seen, when the fictional version of legendary flight controller Gene Kranz turns to them, and uttered a line that has echoed in my mind all week.

“With all due respect sir, I believe this is going to be our finest hour.”

 

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca