The Ten Surprising Lessons of the Pandemic
Now that the pandemic is drawing to a close, it’s time to do a post-mortem. So i posted a question on Social Media: “What is the one word that accurately defines the pandemic experience for you?” The responses were overwhelming-and shocking. People went deep. They didn’t use words like angry or exhausted or frustrated. They used words like grateful and humble and abundant and enlightened and obedient. Crazy, huh?
The Power of Words
The Second Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary contains 171,476 words. So asking people to describe something in one word is kinda rude. But I had a hunch my readers could narrow it down.
See, it’s only during (previously rare) down times that we eliminated some of the noise and distraction. And did a little bit of existential thinking about life. But those opportunities were fleeting. Like a flash of lightning in a dark sky. As soon as it appears, it’s gone. And you wonder if it even happened.
Thats why I find it so darn fascinating that Dictionary.com chose Existential as it’s 2020 Word of the Year. It’s fascinating because we were all forced to take an existential look at our lives. Back in December 2019, Dictionary.com ironically wrote:
”The word captures a sense of grappling with the survival — literally and figuratively — of our planet, our loved ones, our ways of life,"
In similar irony, last December Xerox Corporation announced their color of the year. The color of the year for 2020 was clear.
“Xerox’s Color of the Year-Clear-showcases the importance of creating a fresh look into an unobstructed future, in hopeful yet clear-eyed anticipation of what lies ahead.”
Unobstructed future? You can’t make this stuff up. I bet Xerox would like to have a do-over on that one. Maybe they shouldda actually chosen a color.
Getting back to my Facebook survey, the responses were fascinating. Thousands of people responded. And, the themes became immediately “clear”. See what I did there?
While nearly all of us missed things about our past life, the overwhelming majority of respondents are grateful for this growth experience. Yes I said grateful, my friend. I wrote about this back in March is a piece called Six Reasons to be Grateful for the Pandemic.
Not everyone is “enlightened” by this experience. To be sure, there are an equal number of folks really struggling financially and relationally. I wrote about this in a piece called Five Secrets to Better Decision Making During the Pandemic.
Many of the responses to the survey sounded like major themes of the Bible: patience, humility, grace, obedience, etc.
Humble Pie (the band)
Humility (Nancy)
The word “Humility” was a very popular response in the survey. And, remember that humility was kind of a thing for Jesus. I wrote about this in December in a piece called Reflecting the Light in the Dark Places.
My friend Nancy gave this answer:
“I chose this word because I usually feel very “in control” of my life, my surroundings, my relationships, my health and my faith. This pandemic has made me realize that some things are out of my control and I am completely humbled by that concept. This is especially true with my faith. This whole experience has humbled my relationship with God, as I need to realize that He is in control...not me.“
Acceptance (Judy)
The word Acceptance had a good showing in the survey. Mainly cause people simply had to accept social distancing, masks and the like. I wrote about this in a piece called Courage in Times of Despair
But Judy has a different take:
“Early in the pandemic, I realized that everyone is grieving. We all lost our old life as we knew it. There are five stages of grieving: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Recounting those stages enabled me to be patient with myself and to listening more compassionately to others. The final stage is acceptance. That’s where I am now.“
Slower (Mollie)
Many people are grateful for the dramatic change in the velocity of life. I wrote about this in a piece called I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.
“When we are busy, stressed, overworked, under slept there is very little time to "think" I mean really think about our lives. About our choices and our decisions. We just brush everything off and keep moving. But the slower pace has given me a time to stop and reflect. Some reflections are beautiful and others are not. But, that’s okay.
Introspection: Susan
With this much down time people have finally had time to take an introspective look at their life. I wrote about this in a piece called The Great Reordering.
“I was just reading 2 Nemiah 1:7 where the Lord tells us that if we are serving Him according to his commandments, then this shall remain a land of liberty and we shall never be brought down into captivity; and that unto the righteous it shall be a blessed land forever.
Has there ever been a more critical time in America when we had a greater need to live righteously, or obey the commandments more diligently?“
Quiet (Allison)
A lot of people are simply grateful for the quiet. Time to shut out the noise and distraction of life. I wrote about this in a piece called Seven Obstacles to Authenticity.
“I was given the gift of time during the Pandemic. Time to filter the “din” or business of life that moves us along in a non-pandemic world. As a result, I learned quiet is precious. Quiet is necessary and quiet is life-giving. But, only if it exists in a world that includes the “din” or business of life that moves us along. To have one without the other is imbalanced and I don’t think, is what God wants for us.”
Re-alignment (Mark)
All this quiet time for introspection is causing people to realign some parts of their lives. I wrote about this back in March in a piece called The Great Reordering.
“My re-alignment is a combination of slowing down & also making time for reflection. A re-alignment of priorities and next important steps. They are different now. Not dramatically, but incrementally different. The pandemic has allowed for this time for me to slow down and dig deep. An unexpected benefit, for sure.”
Obedience (Ethel)
In the United States we are fortunate to live in total freedom. That’s why we often recoil when someone tries to tell us how to live.
I’m a sucker for any gif with wiener dogs.
“I’m used to doing whatever I please. They told us to stay home, wash our hands and wear masks. So I did what I was asked.”
Becca - Grateful
It’s a lot easier to be grateful when you have an appreciation for your health and life. I wrote about this in a piece called Nine Inconvenient Truths of Life.
“I am grateful for giving people grace, including myself. We are all flawed and this mess makes things more messy!!
I’d like to think I appreciated this before but in the hustle and bustle of normal life you forget how important it is.”
“Family” (Susan)
This response was one of my favorites. I wrote about this in a piece called What We Leave Behind, where I opined that the best things in lives aren’t things at all; they’re people.
”I think what I learned is how important my “people” are to me. Not just my husband and my children, but my other ”family”. I barely know these people but they form the mosaic of my life. People like Pat, the cashier at Publix. And Shanice at the dry cleaners who greets me with a smile and asks me about my mother’s Parkinson’s. And countless other’s in my life-whose names I don’t even know. I miss these people.”
Illuminating: Tim
A lot of folks are beginning to think they were focusing their time and energy on the wrong things. I wrote about this in a piece called Everything is Gonna Be Okay.
My Facebook friend, Tim, put it perfectly:
“We have received a gift of great clarity about what is important and what is not important; what is strong and what is weak; what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is bad; what is true and what is untrue.
I hope our lives and our world will be forever changed for the good because of the visibility, transparency, vulnerability, authenticity, and truth we have experienced during our journeys this year.”
So, what about you? What word defines the pandemic experience for you? Leave me a comment below with your answer. You’ll hear back from me.
If you liked this story, would you consider emailing it to a few friends? Maybe they’ll like it as much as you did.