22. We didn't need a global pandemic

and yet here we are

We didn’t need a global pandemic to know we are all connected.

We didn’t need a global pandemic to care about the most vulnerable.

We didn’t need a global pandemic to realise we should fund, and fund heavily, our social infrastructure.

We didn’t need a global pandemic to know doctors and nurses are important, and bus drivers and shopkeepers and the people who deliver the mail and clean the streets and everyone who makes our lives possible.

We didn’t need a global pandemic to check in on friends and loved ones.

We didn’t need a global pandemic to take up baking, understand the power of yeast, flour, water, and salt, perform the sacred rites, whisper the magic spell, “Don’t you fucking fall down.”

We didn’t need a global pandemic to take out coloured pencils, crayons, markers, paper, scissors, macaroni, glue, and glitter.

We didn’t need a global pandemic to ask our neighbour how they’re doing.

We didn’t need a global pandemic to get on a bike.

We didn’t need a global pandemic to read the stack of books by the side of our bed.

We didn’t need a global pandemic to make up a pub quiz about the early 00s, with categories like Which Spice Girl Said It.

We didn’t need a global pandemic to care about ourselves.

We didn’t need one, yet here we are. Now, I’m not going to tell you why coronavirus is actually good for us because frankly those hot takes are offensive as hell. Shut up about that. It’s happening and it’s terrible and good things are also happening and one thing didn’t need to lead to the other and they’re not mutually exclusive.

So many of our global problems require individual action. And it’s hard to feel, to really feel, how that action matters. When we eat less meat, drive fewer cars, sort the recycling, it’s hard to feel we’re doing anything at all.

But now the impact of our actions is literal and direct. Staying at home WILL save someone’s life. Not going out WILL help flatten the curve. Individual actions have always had value, and now we can see just how much.

Beyond that, communities that existed before but were maybe a little quiet have risen up and made themselves known. I can’t walk a block without coming across another sign offering help, a leaflet pointing to community groups, neighbours walking by to chat at a socially approved distance. Teachers streaming lessons on YouTube. Musicians performing entire concerts on Instagram. Crowd-sourced recipes. Vodka pivoting to hand sanitiser.

People care. People care so much. Every day I’m reminded of that, not by the news or Twitter but by looking out my window and seeing… no one. By the sign above a set of camping chairs, telling you to borrow one if you’re going to sit in the parking area. By the local cafe who made and delivered the most incredible hot cross buns, to me, a person who does not like hot cross buns.

People have always cared and for the first time I can remember, I think that caring is going to change the world.