Look out for one another

It’s been a strange, unfamiliar, and in a lot of ways distressing past few weeks for people. Years from now, we’re going to look back at this point in time – early-ish 2020, or late 2019, depending on where you were at the time – as a monumental occasion for our individual lives, our societies and the world.

My default approach is to try to find the silver linings in any situation. There’s a time for that, but as people are losing their jobs, places and businesses are closing for now or for good, and everyone shelters in their own homes – now doesn’t feel like the moment.

Months from now, we’ll celebrate the (incredible) work of nurses and doctors and medical staff, of grocery store and pharmacy workers, of truckers and logistics people, of public health experts and of everyday people looking out for one another (from a safe distance of 2 metres away).

In the meantime, call your friends and family; have Skype brunches and dinners over FaceTime. Last weekend my amazing friend Jessica Fan organized a virtual coffeehouse over Zoom – with friends playing songs on piano and guitar, singing or reading poems to each other. It was such a bright and unexpected moment, of finding joy in a shared social experience after being isolated at home.

Look out for one another, and don’t be afraid to ask other people to look out for you. We’ll get through this.