Social Distancing: We Screwed Up

Hindsight is always 20/20, but I sure wish we had taken a different approach to staying home.

When we were all sent to our homes, they should have told us that it would only be "for a time" - that they'd figure out what it would mean for us to get back to normal and that they'd get back to us. Maybe a week, two weeks top and they'd have a rough plan for what reopening looked like: the stages, the goals and metrics. Instead, it's been open-ended and repeatedly extended. That isn't healthy, it isn't tenable and it's like the never-ending car ride where we're all saying "are we there yet?" and dad keeps changing the answer.  

So now we have the "stay at home" group vs the "stop telling me what to do" group.

Both groups want a return to "normalcy" but we're fighting with each other. If, instead, we had a set of goals and metrics that the governor and mayor were regularly reporting, then we could see the progress we were making.  People would still protest and fight, but everyone would at least agree they were looking in the same direction: towards reopening.  

I know the people in charge are trying to figure this out just like all of us, but we need something to cling to, something to look forward to. 

Personally, I don't care. I've enjoyed staying home. I'm fortunate enough to still be employed.  The weather has been nice, I haven't had my commute, I've gotten more time with my family, I've done some cleaning around the house that would have otherwise never occurred. I've been drinking coffee, harvesting a lot of roses and doing some weeding in the yard.  If this keeps up, I'll probably end up taking a few days off to build a fence. The argument that we all need to be in the same office to collaborate and get stuff done has been disproved. And somehow, amazingly, we've all managed to do OK with only a single bathroom. I'm fine as-is. I'm an introvert with my family close. I know that's not the case for everyone, especially my extrovert friends who are trapped alone and begging for Zoom calls.

Hang in there, peeps. I drove past the Citadel Outlet Mall today and their massive screens said "Tough times don't last, tough people do" and "Los Angeles Strong" and "This Too Shall Pass."

It will.