Social What???

This is such a weird time. Social What?? Sheltering-in-Place? No TP left? Hand sanitizer a thing of the past? Everything is closed?

Guess what? Not all is lost.

I put together a list of some benefits of Social Distancing and Staying Home:

1. Showers are optional. However, you might want to periodically inquire on the welfare of your housemates’ olfactory systems.
2. Pants are optional. Just turn off your webcam after the meeting before you stand up. You’re welcome.
3. Less laundry, because, Pants.
4. Less water used for laundry and showers balances out more water used for handwashing. Efficiency, friends. Bam.
5. These times are the stuff of Introvert dreams. We have been training our whole lives for this. We no longer have to pretend that we have really good reasons why we can’t go to the party. There is no party. Cue the happy dance.
6. Gifs and Memes have stepped it up a notch. Social media provides connection and levity during isolation.
7. Parents everywhere are discovering how very valuable teachers are, and how deficient their own parenting might actually be. What? I know it is only day four (or seven, or ten), but you can’t actually put your kids out on the corner with a Free sign.
8. Now the world knows: Teachers need a raise!
9. We are finding that, in fact, lots of meetings are actually possible as emails.
10. The run on toilet paper means fewer houses get teepeed.
11. If your house happens to get teepeed, you just won the lottery.
12. Even if you stay home, you can still go outside. Or open your windows. Spring is coming, friends. Fresh air is free.
13. Can’t get close to other people? Smiles and waves are pretty easy, too, and cover lots of distance.
14. Once all this is said and done, and everyone has the capacity to just stop and breathe, we’ll realize just how important some things are, and how unimportant are the other things.

And my hope is we start to spend our time doing the important things.

We’ve probably all been exposed to COVID-19, aka Corona Virus in some way, shape or form, whether it’s only on the news or actually in person. It is a weird, awkward, scary, unprecedented time. But like I tell my kids, there is always something to be thankful for.

So, while we sit and overanalyze every sniffle, cough, and sinus pressure, and while shops and restaurants and parks and schools are closed, and while working parents are suddenly tasked with web meetings with kids underfoot and homeschooling via the Internet, humor is one of the best ways to cope with the fear and anxiety that inevitably come during a time like this.

We need humor, and we need each other. Stay home, do your part, but connect any way you can. Get creative. Give lots and lots of Grace. Seek humor. Carry on, my fine humans.

P.S. Thank you to all the fine humans who go face to face every day with this monster virus and help the world keep turning. Health care workers, essential business workers, and the like, we see you. Thank you.

Photos graciously provided by Unsplash contributors: markus spiske, tonik, and wesley tingley. Thanks, guys.