Dear Readers,
The future is a foreign country. Sometimes the present is as well. The rapid spread of COVID-19 has forced us to rethink the familiar while questioning whether those we love are truly safe. In this moment, that work is necessary.
The legendary cowboy novelist Larry McMurty once summed up the great plains by saying there’s “plenty of nothing to be looked at.” We live our lives among landmarks, pacing over life’s predictable features, the flatiron of a Monday morning and the badlands of a Thursday afternoon. A few cancellations, a work from home notice, and a couple million transmissions later, that landscape has been glaciated flat. There’s an awful lot of nothing to be looked at.
We're just looking at -- and to -- each other.
The coronavirus is terrifying. It is a world-flattener, a grandparent killer, a dagger in the Dow, and a known unknown. It is not in your control or mine and nothing you read on the internet will change that. You, however, are in your control. Nothing you read on the internet can change that either. You are in control of the things you do, say, and -- if you work at it -- think. You are in control of the questions you ask. You are in control of the answers you accept.
How do I care for myself? Stay clean, close, and calm.
How do I care for my kids? Keep them occupied. Take care of yourself.
How do I care for my parents? Make the risk posed clear. Talk to them. Talk to them again.
How do I care for my community? Consider risk as a shared liability.
That sounds simple and is admittedly reductive. In practice, however, it is difficult. But these are the behaviors — the communications, really — demanded by the moment and by the information currently available. Now is the time to be tactical and empathetic, calculating and caring. Well-chosen words bind logic to feeling. Calm words are transmitted from person to person. The best words offer relief, if not a cure.
Even when there’s nothing else, there’s that. There’s us.
Best,
Andrew
Editor-in-Chief | Fatherly
Andrew.Burmon@fatherly.com