You’re doing an awesome job

I don’t know about you, but I want to hear some good news right now - if even just a little. A slight pat on the head from the docs and experts would be great. A “good job, guys” can mean so much right now. 

Let’s face it… Doctors aren’t great PR people. They weren’t trained in nor do they give two squirts about effective messaging. 

The focus for doctors has a pretty small field of vision… It consists of saving lives and mercilessly crushing diseases in short order. And right now, they’re in the thick of it. So they’re raging at the general public to STAY HOME!! 

So many of us have had our lives upended in a multitude of ways. This includes even those of us who aren’t as “at-risk” as others (though we know now that none of us are entirely immune from this thing).  

In my city of Chicago, we just got an A for social distancing. 

Yay! An A!! 

I never got A’s in grade school. That’s amazing, right?…

Uhhhh, right?…

Well, then I read that a medical expert said, “I need Chicago at an A+. Maybe an A++,”

It’s like sprinting home with your report card because you were so excited that you got an A when you thought you were going to get a C- and you wanted to show your mom that YOU GOT AN A!!! LOOK, MOM!!! AN A!!

Your mom takes the report card and after a sharp glance at it, throws it in your face and says… This SUCKS. I need an A++!!!

*Head hangs low*

When I read these things, it seems like they don’t appreciate the efforts that the general public has made - like, you know, ending life as we know it - to hopefully flatten the curve and keep hospitals from getting disastrously overwhelmed. 

Well, it seems that hospitals are already disastrously overwhelmed. So that’s why their posture of panic makes sense. 

THAT BEING SAID… Today, I want to say a thing or three that you may not have heard enough of…

What you’re doing right now matters. You’re doing a fantastic job and it doesn’t go unappreciated. You’re making a giant difference and are literally saving lives by doing what you can right now. 

I’m not even talking about the docs and other people on the front lines. They know they’re heroes - at least I hope they do.

I’m talking about you at home wondering what the hell is going on and when things are going to get back to something resembling ‘normal’ again. You have no idea if the drastic measures you’re taking right now are paying off.

Well, I’m no expert. I’m not a doctor nor do I act like one on the internet. And I assure you they are. You, doing what you’re doing, is paying off. Big time.

We gotta give the docs a pass here. Their lives are on the line. They’re seeing this thing in graphic detail. Every single new face that rushes through the ER doors is a threat to their existence. I’d probably be acting from fear and panic too if I were in their shoes. We can’t ask them to be cheerleaders right now.

So that’s why I’m here on this little blog of mine. Holding up my megaphone, pom-poms and all (got the visual yet?).

It’s fascinating…

Never before have so many people worldwide come together to shelter-in-place and slam the brakes on everyday life as we have these last few weeks in order to tackle a pandemic of this magnitude.

I remember the H1N1 thing in 2009. But barely. I went about my day just as pretty much everyone else I know. And almost 300,000 people died. But I had no idea and neither did anyone else I knew.   

I honestly had to check and see if it was even a pandemic. It was. But from what I remember, it seemed like a strange flu bug somewhere… Else. That pandemic didn’t make a dent in my social or working life.

But this one… 
Wow…

Yes, some of the world is under enforced social distancing, especially in hot-spot areas. People in Italy are forced to stay home unless they have special permission to go to the store, etc. 

But elsewhere, social distancing is largely voluntary. We’re on social media holding each other’s feet to the fire to stay the hell home. To wash your hands every 20 minutes, not touch your face, sanitize your groceries… The list of proper precautions seems endless and impossible. 

But a lot of us are doing a lot of them. I don’t think any of us are doing all of them. But a lot of us are doing a lot of them. 

As for me, I’m failing at many of them. I touch my face so much. I know I’ve gotten closer than six feet to people on my dog walks. We brought our germ-carrier - I mean, daughter - to the store last week, which is apparently a no-no. 

Maybe you can relate. But you know what… 

You’re doing absolutely amazing. Thanks so much for caring for the vulnerable so much so that you’d voluntarily do a lot of inconvenient and economically futile things in order to flatten this curve and soften the blow of this pandemic. 

That, my friend, takes faith. It takes faith in the notion that this is helping. It takes faith in the hope that our work will come back. It takes faith that we’ll get beyond this thing even though we have no idea how right now. 

I pray that we can start to soften the distancing ASAP. I pray that this virus eases its grip on us soon.

But until then…

You’re doing great. Keep going. We got this. The other end of the tunnel is approaching.

Grace & Godspeed,
Jonas