As many people hunker down in their homes, following the mandates to “shelter in place”, a skewed perspective of the world outside your very own small world may develop. There are life-changing, funny, sad, devastating, and interesting things happening that may get lost. So here is my perspective:
It occurred to me that in the past few week I have met or imaged multiple people whose world has been shattered by news that had nothing to do with Corona, COVID-19 or lack of toilet paper. Not the news on the television or the latest Facebook post about the corona virus or the ever-increasing numbers constantly showing on the sidebar of many website in a red, scary graph with 5 digits, then six digits.
There are people who have been shattered by my job, by findings in a clinic, by a report on a page, by a phone call from their doctor. They have been crushed and tried and tested. There is a loss of control, their loss of hope, their questions of faith, their cries to God. Anticipation of pain, healing, loss, treatment, change.
There are the others who have been given a clean bill of health, a new baby, a plan of hope for continued wellness, or an answer for their pain.
There is the new mother who had to be induced because her 100 pound frame couldn’t take the pressure of that nine pound little human inside her. While scared to be anywhere near a hospital, the light of new life in the midst of all this death, doom and loss must be beyond amazing. Perspective.
There is the young lady with her first pregnancy that sits at home all day with severe nausea, vomiting, and aversion to raw chicken and makes me laugh with stories of trying to make dinner. While she has been laid off and that is hard, she cannot imagine working under these conditions. She is bored out of her mind and I am longing for time alone! Perspective.
There is the lady who was home finding ways to make surgical masks but had to come in for a check for metastatic lesions from a former cancer. Perspective.
There is the elderly lady who felt a lump in her breast and is now finding ways to cope with the chemo and radiation treatments she is getting ready to endure. Yet that may get delayed due to the virus. Perspective.
There is the young man who has been having neck pain and finds out it is a tumor in his spine that has metastisized from an unknown cancer in his body.
The lady who had a stroke yesterday but does not want to go the the emergency room right now. I would hope not to ever have to go to the ER, but sometimes it’s necessary! Yet at times like these it’s like a cesspool in our brains … a virus just waiting for us at the door. Ready to attack anyone who enters, we fear. And yet someone I know personally is now diagnosed with covid-19 and is admitted. The first person I actually know and now it is real. Heartbreakingly real. Perspective.
There are silly things like someone going to a walk in clinic to get a huge earring removed because she needs an MRI of her head but the earring causes too much artifact and her husband, who is a pipe fitter, can’t remove it. Two days later she finally returns for her imaging and is so sweet and kind and laughs. Perspective.
There is the funny story of a patient who hurt his elbow. I ask… what happened? “My cow tipped over”… so hard not to crack up at the thought of this 400# man with his 500# cow which had gone off to visit the neighbor cow. She didn’t get the message, apparently, that you cannot go visit the neighbors! No, she got mad (ha ha .. mad cow) … and he tried to get her home by pulling her with a rope. She tried to go in circles around him and fell over. He hurt his elbow trying to get her back up. Poor guy … made me laugh. Perspective.
Around town there is quiet on the streets as I go downtown to my studio after my abbreviated days at work… to let my mind go for a few hours in piles of flower petals and every manner of adhesive as I try new designs and ideas and methods. Why create? I wonder. There is no one to see it, no art walk, no buyers… so I create for the pure joy of it. And if I don’t create that means I am going home early to sit around with my two people trying to figure out what to do for dinner. Too early for all that… Create a new perspective.
As I drive from here to there I hear traffic reports that are no longer needed because there is no traffic. I hear commercials from restaurants that can’t wait to make me dinner and news reports about the latest recommendations from the CDC, the President, the FDA, or the Governor.
I see people driving around with masks on in their car. They are the only one in the car. “You don’t need a mask!” I shout inside my head. Wait, was that my inside voice leaking out again?? … “You cannot give yourself the virus!” I pick up dinner for our planned once-a-week take out, doing our part to support these people who work so hard to feed us excellent meals… and so I don’t have to help my two people figure out what to eat for dinner… again. Thank goodness!
There is a 10 acre parking lot at the theater with zero cars and two people walking down the sidewalk … the only two people within a two mile radius… and they wear masks as they walk together. They probably live together and went out to get some fresh air… “YOU DON’T NEED A MASK TO DO THAT!!” I shout and my son laughs.
Meanwhile… These things float around in my thoughts – so many things that have a different perspective:
There are homeless people being housed in the high school that can’t be used for teaching students because you can’t have so many people together in one space.
There is an overpass in Las Vegas painted with rectangles six feet apart where homeless people are expected to sleep while a multitude of hotels sit empty with food rotting in their refrigerators because there is no buffet to overload.
And a guy got in trouble in California for going out on his sail board… all alone in the ocean he is a risk to what? The jellyfish? What kind of rule is it that a few people can’t go to the beach? Man the parking lot, if you must, Costco style… let 5 people park three spaces apart and go find their quiet place to ponder, frolic, or surf.
Soon we will carry our little certificate with us showing us to be COVID-19 free so we can go get a haircut, sit in a cafe, or walk on the beach? Meanwhile I press up against one person after the other getting them comfortable for their MRI, holding their pillows under their elbows until they feel secure, and giving them sips of water, words of encouragement, and cleaning like a mad woman between each encounter.
That’s my perspective on the matter. I’m blessed to be out in the world seeing things that others are hidden from. Yet, the introvert in me loves nothing better than the thought of being sequestered in my studio for weeks on end. I wonder if I would get bored. I long to write for hours and tell the stories of long ago with uninterrupted chunks of time where I can get emotionally connected to the characters. But from this perspective I am grateful for my job, my patients, my absolutely amazing employers… whatever happens as long as I don’t get sick, of course!
Stay well.