I sipped my morning coffee and browsed through the news, social media and emails. Spain declared an emergency and locked down. The situation was still dire in Italy. Testing was woefully inadequate in the US and published numbers were the tip of the iceberg. Toilet paper, cleaning supplies and frozen food shelves could not be restocked fast enough in supermarkets and grocery stores across the country to keep up with the wave of panic buying.
Sigh.
Three other items caught my eye.
The Times had a heartwarming story about how Italians nationwide – under lockdown to prevent the spread of the coronavirus – took to singing and playing musical instruments from their balconies and rooftops, with “piano chords, trumpet blasts, violin serenades and even the clanging of pots and pans” spilling from people’s homes” to show that they would get past this together, and to thank all the medical personnel on the front lines fighting the spread of the virus.
A good friend in Switzerland sent me a WhatsApp message. “People have been hoarding toilet paper here,” she said, “empty shelves.” She also forwarded a video (it likely took multiple forwards to get to me) showing a young man in a coffee shop paying for his coffee with single sheets of toilet paper, and the barista asking for one more sheet, as Abba’s classic song plays in the background. Money, money, money, must be funny, in the rich man’s world.
And then I saw this post on the social networking platform for local communities, Nextdoor:
“I’d like to take a moment to reflect on our current situation by bringing up a quote from the author C.S. Lewis. It’s from an essay titled “On Living in an Atomic Age”. I’ll let Lewis say what he says best:
‘In one way we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb. “How are we to live in an atomic age?” I am tempted to reply: “Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night; or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, an age of railway accidents, an age of motor accidents.”
In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation…
This is the first point to be made: and the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things—praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts—not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds.’
“On Living in an Atomic Age” (1948) in Present Concerns: Journalistic Essays”
Lewis wrote these words 72 years ago. We must heed his advice today. Let’s not panic. Let’s be sensible. Let’s use common sense. Let’s adopt common courtesy. Let’s pull together towards a common cause.
Carefully follow the simple, sensible advice of healthcare professionals. Wash your hands, Maintain social distance. Stay indoors and avoid contact with others as much as you can. Be prepared to sacrifice some of your needs for the common good. It’s not just for you. It’s for everyone around you, and for everyone around them.
Together, we will eventually emerge victorious from the “Age of the Coronavirus.”
Mukund Acharya is a co-founder of Sukham, an all-volunteer non-profit organization in the Bay Area established to advocate for healthy aging within the South Asian community.
With gratitude to Joel Filipe for the use of his beautiful photograph from Unsplash.com