SUNNYSIDE UP MOMENT - APRIL 19, 2020

DAY THIRTY-FOUR OF THE CORONAVIRUS SHUTDOWN FOR US AT STACK 'EM HIGH PANCAKES AND SO FORTH

Good morning.  There is a post going around Facebook that is completely spot on.  I apologize that I do not know the original author in order to give him or her credit.  It begins, “We are not in the same boat…We are in the same storm, but we are not in the same boat…Yours could be shipwrecked and mine could be fine…”  It goes on to list the many ways we are experiencing the quarantine differently.  Whether the discrepancies stem from financial issues or parenting issues or of course health issues, it is true, the pandemic is most likely not affecting me the way it is affecting you.  The day to day reality of the pandemic is staggeringly different from person to person from sea to shining sea.  Some people are grappling with multiple and compounding loss, while others are dealing with nearly nothing at all.  It can be seemingly impossible to understand this truth, but understand it we must.

What the world needs now is what the world always needs.  And while the premise is plain, its implementation requires us to roll up our sleeves.  Barack Obama said, “Learning to stand in somebody else’s shoes, to see through their eyes, that’s how peace begins.  And it’s up to you to make that happen.  Empathy is a quality of character that can change the world.”  If we could truly commit to the extra minute it takes to see a situation from an angle other than our own, that would be time well spent.  Indeed, it could change the world.  In this unprecedented storm, may all of our boats find safe harbor.  May all of our ships reach the shore.