This blog post was initially written almost at the beginning of the Pandemic on March 17th, 2020. Then it was updated on September 17th, 2020, since things that had been said to be only temporary were still going on. Along with others, we were undergoing repeated lockdowns, with brief periods of relative freedom.
For the most part, whether mandated or not, the actual results for many people were continued periods of isolation. Fear, mandates, and such took their toll, and the reality was that with the exception of a few, many have not been living entirely normal lives during 2020 and 2021, with things loosening up only slightly in 2022.
So, how did we stay positive during the Pandemic… or not?
First of all, being in lockdown meant we were allowed brief grocery shopping trips. Other than that, we were at home. It was hardest on the seniors living alone, youth, and children.
People could not attend loved ones’ funerals or weddings. I remember friends who still had living parents in senior care facilities. It was heartbreaking to have to see them trying to wish a parent a Happy Birthday through a window. Many photos on Facebook showed family members holding up their hands and placing them on the glass together.
All of us lost people we know to COVID. That was the worst of all.
Sometimes, there were restrictions on travel outside your region. For instance, I remember having to travel to my dentist outside our region and requiring a letter confirming I had an appointment for an urgent situation.
We had remote doctor visits because you would not dare go and sit in an urgent care office. There were many things you just lived with instead of seeing a doctor.
Family holiday get-togethers were canceled. Grandparents were not allowed to visit new grandchildren. I’m sure many people have their own stories to relate to. It was different for all of us.
This was not bad for many people who worked from home most of the time. They could keep working remotely. For others who relied on going out to work, everything changed.
People who had store-front small retail businesses took a big hit. No going out to eat at restaurants, no coffee shops. No school for children.
Everyone was asking when and if things would ever return to normal. Eventually, we all tried to stay positive and get beyond the Pandemic in one piece. Our world changed fundamentally.
Keeping Positive
People, in general, started to go out to walk, soak up some sunshine, and exercise in the open air to keep positive. Passing people in a park was very different. From a long way off, each person diverged to one side of the path so as to avoid being too close when they passed by. Some people refused to be sullen and waved and called out. All of a sudden, just making a connection with a stranger was helpful for your state of mind.
Remember the six-foot distance requirements in grocery stores? The arrows on the floor pointed in the direction of flow. Going by accident the wrong way meant a store monitor would come and let you know you were going the wrong way. It was strange, as we kept our distance, with no one talking. Waiting in line outside in the cold or wet was not easy in the winter. Then we all remember being greeted at the door by a sign or person advising. “No mask, no entry.” Somehow we managed.
If you wanted to go to a gym to exercise, you had to book an appointment for only one hour at a session. Some of that one hour was spent filling out a form and having a temperature gun pointed at your forehead. It became not worth the effort.
I remember going through the checkout counter with women cashiers barricaded behind plexiglass walls. At first, wearing masks also, no one nodded as if to give a greeting. If you were used to smiling at people, there was no use in doing that behind the mask. I remember smiling anyway and trying to be friendly. You crinkled up your eyes a bit when you were smiling to show somehow that you were agreeable. Then it got better, and people started to chat a little as they went through. We are social creatures, after all! It was then I realized that my grocery shopping expedition every two or three weeks was the highlight of the month. Getting actually to visit with a stranger. WOW.
The Pollyanna Technique
Like many others, I really missed seeing my children. I am so grateful I did not live entirely alone; like some, that would have been worse. One of the things you must do to stay positive is to be grateful for something. Even the slightest thing is almost enough to keep you from becoming morose or depressed.
Not many people remember the movie Pollyanna, an American Disney drama with a smattering of comedy based on Pa 1913 novel by Eleanor H. Porter. Pollyanna is about a young girl who finds herself orphaned and sent to live with her Aunt Polly. She always tries to see the good side of life; no matter the situation, she always finds something to be glad about. She makes many friends in the small town with her positive attitude. Later she falls out of a tree and breaks her leg (I think, as I recall it). She then becomes extremely depressed; it takes the whole town to help her return to her normal happy self and heal.
There are two views regarding this Pollyanna Technique. Some of us grew up being always admonished to see the good side of things like Pollyanna. Others have belittled this attitude as being unrealistic and unproductive. This view says you must own your sorrows and, if at all possible, share them. It is good to reach out for help. However, someplace in the middle could be a way to move forward. Sometimes continuing to feel bad about a situation keeps you from moving on to a happier state.
It is sometimes hard to climb out emotionally when you are down in the dumps about a problem. This is when you use the Pollyanna Technique, find something in your life to feel grateful for.
A well-known hymn emphasizes this, and the chorus is as follows.
“Count your blessings, name them one by one;
Johnson Oatman (1897)
Count your blessings, see what God hath done;
Count your blessings, name them one by one;
Count your many blessings, see what God hath done.”
The book Chicken Soup for the Soul: Attitude of Gratitude: 101 Stories About Counting Your Blessings & The Power of Thankfulness, by Amy Newmark, is a great book about gratitude and counting our blessings.
There were many unintended consequences to lockdowns
- In many instances, it took less than a fill-up of gas to keep you going for over six months.
- No new clothes purchased -why? 1. Not allowed to try them on in-store. 2. Can’t bring them back if they don’t fit. 3. Can make do since we are not going anywhere anyway. -Although I did have to duct tape my favorite indoor shoes. Getting new ones means I have to try them on, and the little place we lived in during the Pandemic had no actual shoe store. Now there I go complaining again about not being able to travel out of your region. One instance of how serious this was, is a friend who was able to work during the Pandemic. She drove to her parent’s house to drop off her children one day. They lived just out of the region. She was stopped and given a fine of $800. She had to quit her job.
- Dentists opened again, but you paid the same amount for cleaning but for a reduced service. Water pick cleaning, which is easier on you and your teeth, was prohibited because there could be a spray I’m not too fond of, and I don’t like the feel of a metal pick scraping at my teeth. So like others, I waited.
- Make-up, well, you still need to fix yourself up for Zoom meetings or Facetime meetings, but in-between times, you didn’t have to buy any new for months.
- If you needed a new car. With only a few trips to the grocery stores and back… people could wait for that too.
- No sense in planning a vacation trip. All the cruise ships were docked in the harbor.
- The above list could probably go on and on… I guess it is ok to vent your frustrations, just as long as you get back into a positive balance. Festering is a downward spiral.
All of what happened during the Pandemic led to a series of domino effects. And even now, the dominos have not finished being knocked over.
Speaking of unintended consequences, there was a lot of fallout worldwide. Imagine 183 countries following the lockdown procedures. Hard to believe, but there was a report on TV accompanied by a video of a frantic and screaming woman around sixty years old. The woman was being manhandled and thrown to the ground for not wearing a mask.
We all must survive this by keeping our own lives and emotions upbeat.
Reach out to family and friends, even if it is just a few lines in a text message. Share and encourage each other on social media. Be as helpful to those who need it as you are able. Sometimes the slightest kind word can make a difference in someone’s life.
There is a saying, “A butterfly flaps its wings in the Amazon jungle, and subsequently, a storm ravages half of Europe.” Chaos Theory… It makes you wonder what unintended consequences will be felt from this worldwide event in the future.
“For the want of a nail the shoe was lost,
― Benjamin Franklin
For the want of a shoe the horse was lost,
For the want of a horse the rider was lost,
For the want of a rider the battle was lost,
For the want of a battle the kingdom was lost,
And all for the want of a horseshoe-nail.”
On the positive side…
- Humans are resilient.
- It may seem like our lives are being run via Artificial Intelligence models, untested solutions, and people without experience dealing with a Pandemic. All we can do is survive, and things will hopefully get resolved.
- People are finding new ways to do things.
- People who did not realize how vital constitutional rights and freedoms are… have awakened to that fact.
- Ordinary people are joining hands to improve things.
- One by One, we can all make a difference. We can have hope. The world will get back to some normalcy.
People will find ways to get through times like this.
