Six Reasons to be Grateful for the Quarantine

I’ve been thinking a lot about the Coronavirus this week. So have you. I know that there are a great deal of Americans who are at high risk, particularly the elderly and immunocompromised among us. Those who may not shake the virus like a common cold.  It’s alarming, for sure. 

But for all the fear, anger and future-tripping about a catastrophic Toilet Paper shortage, there are a few points of light.

I’m starting to see things. Things that make me laugh. Things that make me channel my inner Lee Greenwood: the original one-hit wonder. Things that make me realize it’s all gonna be okay.  

And that’s where the story begins...

So here are six reasons why we should be grateful for the Quarantine:

1. American Spirit:  We aren’t there yet but it’s brewing. That unmistakable American spirit that appears when “we” are down, but not out. It happened after 911.  It happened later when our troops deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. Americans gathered on bridges and overpasses to watch the convoys mobilize and caravan towards the unknown. People pulled off the road and honked as the caravans passed. We all knew they were headed to kick some major league ass.

The kids painted signs. The adults waived flags. It was a moment of history I’ll not soon forget. 

In the midst of this invisible pathogen promising death and despair, lies that smoldering American spirit. It’s just below the surface, now. That we are all in this together. That we’ll all be okay. We aren’t there yet but it’s brewing. You’ll know it when it happens.

2. Kindness: There’s an unmistakable sign that the American spirit is mobilizing. I see it in the Gen. Pop. (General Population). It’s a look in people’s eyes. A look that says, “I know what you’re worrying about”.

I saw it during my final business trip last week. An older Chinese man was in front of me at TSA in the airport. He had a mask on. He was coughing and sneezing. The social distance around him was growing. One woman pulled her sweater up over her nose and turned away.  He lifted his mask and turned to the aghast crowd. With a big smile he said, “can’t a Chinese guy have hay-fever anymore?” It broke the tension and everyone laughed. Then he looked at me and said, “jeez, I can’t make any friends right now.” Hey, he owned it.  

3. Generosity: I feel for all the folks who have jobs serving the Gen. Pop.  They make a living interacting with hundreds of (possibly infected) people every day. Like the two gate agents from Delta Air Lines last week. They looked like two stern nuns in a Leper colony. Neither wanted to be there; both needed their job and paycheck, I suspect.

I ran down to the sandwich shop and bought them each a chocolate chip cookie (wrapped in plastic, of course). Upon presenting these ladies with a $1.25 cookie ($4.75 at the airport) their entire disposition changed. The nuns bloomed like a spring flower.

You’d have thought I gave them each $1,000 gold coin. They were still cackling and laughing as I disappeared down the ramp. Nothing Beats Nice. Nothing.  

4. Vulnerability: My wife and I have a theory. It goes like this. The entitlement attitude of the average American rises and falls with the economy. We call it The A-Hole Factor. That is, when the economy is white-hot and people are making money hand over fist, they turn into elitist A-holes. We are omnipotent; beyond reproach. We toss around our status and success like a badge of honor. (Do you know who I am?) Everyone starts to believe they are “somebody important.” They aren’t. 

The inverse is also true. As the economy plummets, people start to embrace their own vulnerability. It brings back humility. Remember humility? People get nicer and more polite - and less enamored with themselves. It’s a beautiful thing-for all of us. 

5. Justice: in times like these nothing makes me madder than people taking advantage of each other. Matt Colvin is a 36-year-old former Air Force technical sergeant.

He became the subject of national scorn after The New York Times reported he had stockpiled more than 17,000 bottles of hand sanitizer. Yesterday he agreed to donate the supplies after the Amazon marketplace delisted his products. Chalk one up for Justice.  

6. Joy: According to The New York Times, Italians stuck in their homes have been breaking out in song. “It’s not like we’re maestros,” a woman in Rome said, but “it’s a moment of joy in this moment of anxiety.”

According to The Times, the story is a reminder that “contagion is real, but it doesn’t just work for viruses,” our writer said. “It works for kind words and generous thoughts, and acts of selflessness and honesty.”

As my friend, Dunn Neugebauer wrote recently, “God has picked up His very large and powerful eraser, walked to the board, wiped it clean.” We’re getting a chance to reset. To pause. To take a deep breath. We needed this; maybe more than we know. 

As a Facebook post said recently, “Your Grandparents were called to war; some died. You are being asked to sit on a couch for 14 days. You can do this.”

So there it is. God has wiped the slate clean. Like Delmar O’Donnell’s happy baptism in my favorite movie, Oh Brother Where Art Thou: “Nothing but the straight and narrow from here on out.”

Let’s try to put all this in perspective and show the entire world our indomitable American Spirit, Kindness, Generosity, Vulnerability, Justice and Joy.

If you need some inspirational reading for your own quarantine, visit me at www.tomgreene.com. You’ll find more inspirational stuff there. It’s free and it’s better than scrolling through Facebook (again).

And, remember, Nothing Beats Nice. Nothing.