Wednesday, June 3
By Katherine Schneider, for the CVPost
If you remember the Aesop’s fable about a race between a hare and a tortoise, the tortoise won.
As “Safer at Home” orders end and we phase in more back to “normal” activities, I fear those still safer at home will be run over in the initial rush.
By most counts, at least half of the COVID deaths are nursing home residents. Clearly, elderly and vulnerable folks need to keep their exposure to the Corona virus down as much as possible. But that doesn’t mean they don’t want to get back to family gatherings, haircuts, church, etc.
‘Tortoise lane’ needed
Tortoises can live to age 150. We can’t manage that longevity for people yet, but we can honor our “Still Safer at Home,” slow and careful exposure folks by making sure there is a “Tortoise lane” on the road to the good things of life. That could include:
- Barbers and beauticians advertising home haircuts
- Drive-through Communion at least once a month
- Changing city and county rules so remote participation in meetings is permitted as needed, not just in public emergencies
- Maintaining delivery services for meals, groceries, etc.
- Wearing a mask when asked to
- Sticking with those neighborly “we’re in this together” offers to help.
We also need to honor the careful, sometimes agonizing decision-making that vulnerable people need to do about which risks they will and won’t take. They may decide to go to a family gathering but not to a club meeting.
Trust their decision and don’t ask for an explanation. At most ask “anything we could do to make this meeting doable for you?”
As a wise tortoise I know, named Jim, summarized it: “Let’s not hurt ourselves by rushing. The important point is getting what we want and need. If it takes a few more steps, and a little help from our friends, who cares.”
The home page image is a conceptual rendering of a coronavirus cell.