STAYING SANE IN CORONA TIMES

“The simple fact is that each day you have a choice. You can be a germ and infect people with your negative energy, or you can be a big dose of vitamin C and infuse them with your positive energy.”

---Jon Gordon, author “The Positive Dog”

As I’m writing this, I half expect to look out my window and see Negan walking by with his barbed wire bat, because it seems like we’re all trapped in a bad episode of “The Walking Dead.” Now, full disclosure, I am not a scientist or a medical professional. I barely passed high school chemistry, and I have no idea what RNA, cell apoptosis, and virology have to do with the price of toilet paper at Market Basket. Still, if someone as unscientific as me can understand the basics of what is now a pandemic, then it shouldn’t be that hard, right? Whether you think it’s a big fat hoax or the end of days doesn’t matter. We’re all going to just have to wait and see. Here are a few tips to help you through COVID-19 without becoming a zombie snack.

• Wash your hands. It’s basic hygiene, and there shouldn’t have to be a global pandemic to get people to do it. Weren’t we already washing our hands regularly? Please tell me we haven’t all been wandering around dragging our snoogery boogery fingers all over every available surface? The stakes are a little higher now, so we need the reminders. However, there is no need to go to the store and buy 5 cases of water, 400 rolls of toilet paper, and every jug of hand sanitizer on the shelf, so you can stack it up in your garage. You’re not making yourself any safer, you just look silly. Cut it out.

• Stay home if you can. Schools have closed, some universities are extending spring breaks, and workplaces have encouraged anyone who can, to work from home. Is this an overreaction to something that is essentially a mild flu-like illness? We don’t know yet, so why not take a little time off from some of the needless running about and just stay in? Don't go full-on Bubble Boy about it, but when was the last time the whole family stayed in? Get out the board games, binge watch Netflix, make popcorn, bake cookies or just hang out. My plan is to get some closets and dressers organized…OK, that’s a lie, I have no plans to do that. I won’t be hitting up the mall or the movie theater though; I’m settling in with some Jiffy Pop and my DVD collection. 

• Check on your neighbors. Not everyone can run to BJ’s or Costco and bring home a Suburban full of granola bars and canned soup. COVID-19 is especially dangerous for the elderly or those with chronic illnesses like asthma and COPD. Look around; there is likely someone nearby that needs a pot of stew or a pan of lasagna on their doorstep. Call your friends that live alone, chat them up. You know that big square electronic thing most of us have shoved in a pocket? It can make phone calls, so reach out and touch someone, just not with your germy hands. 

• Calm the heck down. About everything. Yes, it stinks that your spring break trip is canceled, your preschoolers are home all day, and your job is a mess from trying to reschedule business trips, but did you die? If you’re reading this, no you didn’t, and I’m glad. You should be glad too. It’s a huge cluster “duck” right now in the public health arena, and everyone is impacted in some way. And so it goes. Freaking out never solves anything, so chill, if you can. There’s no need to get all bent out of shape unless Netflix goes offline, or we lose power. If that happens, I’m reaching for my bat. In the meantime, try to be as positive as you can. Be well, be nice, and be safe.