That Which Separates Us

We have been sent home. Told to isolate. Stay apart. Stay safe.

This virus, unseen, has physically separated us. And yet we have come together. Not physically, at least not if we are following the recommendations, the rules. And yet we have pulled together.

Pulled together in our resolve to stay healthy. To beat this thing. To survive.

Pulled together to continue to accomplish our day to day tasks. Virtual meetings. Shopping from home. Distance learning.

Pulled together as a nation. Facing tough decisions as one. Looking for leadership, for decisions, for answers, together.

And in smaller ways we have pulled together as well. We are figuring out how to reach out to each other. Maybe it’s virtually, maybe it’s physically. We have more time to do it. We linger a bit longer with each other. Have that conversation we forgot how to have. Walks are the new gym. Side by side, perhaps 6 feet apart. Kids with their dads, with their moms, families.

I “go” to work on school days, “chat” with my students, guide their learning experiences. I miss being with them, miss everything about it. Yet the reality is that I am home with my mom and my dogs. And this time with my mom and my dogs is time I have gained. Time I would have been away from them, physically away. It is a gift, this special time. For none of us, not me, not my mom, not my dogs, are getting any younger. So it is a gift I am remembering to be grateful for.

And as my husband goes off to work each day, the same yet different, I am thankful that the infrastructure work in this country continues. And it keeps my husband happy. You can’t build roads and bridges from home. It is isolated work, so I feel that he is safe. He has reasons of his own for avoiding illness so I trust his good judgement. As much as we can trust anything these days. So we separate and reunite each day, a little bit of sameness in an ever changing landscape.

We humans are apart yet pulled together. We are surviving the best way we can right now. And later, when we can, we will celebrate our uniquely human way of sticking it out!

Because that which separates us needn’t defeat us.