Pandemonium vs 6 Degrees of Separation

It’s 4 am and I can’t sleep, my mind swirls around the pandemonium that is going on with the COVID 19 virus. At the same time, I feel “insulated”, in my “safe little world”. I have the luxury of shopping for groceries every 2-3 months at the Scott Air Force Base Commissary and I went about a month ago, so I am in no fear of running out of staples, only perishables like milk, produce and fresh bread, which will hopefully be available when I need them at the local grocery stores. My husband, Mike, recently retired and no longer takes the long trek from the Forest Park MetroLink station to Scott twice a day, exposing himself to the myriad of petri dish diversity that rides the MetroLink each day. As a Realtor, while some things (like showing homes) has to be done in person, a lot of what I do, like negotiating contracts and building inspections can be done via phone calls, texts, emails and electronic signatures, and I have a home office I can safely work from. I know I am among the fortunate ones. While I’m in the over 65 age bracket that is deemed more vulnerable, Mike and I are in reasonable health and should be able to weather the storm if we come down with the virus. At the same time though, I worry about friends and family who are older and aren’t in good health. At the back of my mind, I have to acknowledge coming down with Mono when I was a freshman in College many, many years ago. Our family doctor when I complained that I knew NO ONE who had Mono, so how could I possibly have gotten it, simply said “You were in large auditorium class with 100-200 students, and someone who had it sneezed in your direction, ” a lesson learned that applies today While it is unknown the full extent of the havoc that the virus and its aftermath will have the world’s financial status, already businesses are limiting their hours, laying off staff and closing down. I wonder which ones will survive and which will never be the same even if they reopen after it is over with. Mike saw an article that suggested buying gift cards to small businesses now that could be used when they reopen after the virus has passed, but that doesn’t take into account that many may not reopen. Others have sent me pleading emails asking me to please use their drive thru and carryout services until they are able to open again, so they don’t have to close completely. In my mind, I wonder how other small businesses would even have the ability to provide any services? Beauticians, barbers, nail salons – it would be impossible for them to serve customers from home or to provide a “carry out” or “delivery service” option and they would need to break the social distancing rules to service anyone. There are just too many jobs and careers where it would be impossible to work from home or to do your job if you were following social distancing rules. But shopping now is based around perceived necessities, not “nice to have” items so as “nice to haves” sit on store shelves, the companies making them have decisions to make - keep producing so the items will be there when the shoppers come back, or slow down production and lay off employees since no one knows what season it will even be when the shoppers return, and if the shoppers have been laid off or had their work hours cut, whether or not they will have the income to purchase “nice to haves” at that point. While online businesses seem to be “booming” as people shop from home for entertainment as well as needed supplies, that raises the quandary of the number of people that have to work at the warehouses and distribution points to package and move those items to get them to us, and the delivery people who, while leaving things at people’s doorsteps are still within range of a sneeze or a contaminated mailbox door or doorbell. The cashiers and employees at the stores that are still open share the same fears, will the next customer or other employee they come into contact with, expose them to the virus? Will someone sneeze in their direction? My sister is California is under the “shelter in place” orders. She can go to the grocery store or pharmacy, to see a doctor, and can use drive thru and carry out restaurants, but her only other resource that is still open are the local parks where people can (by themselves or in small family groups) walk and play. While a friend in Florida, who has bronchitis, is self isolating and ordering deliver of fresh fruits and other foods online, and a friend in St Louis is self isolating and friends are delivering things to her door. The “normal” we knew has left us. We are in a “new normal”, but with no idea what the next new normal that will follow once the virus is “contained” will be. As I ponder all this, I think back to Noah and the Flood and to the other times in the Bible when God’s people turned away and catastrophes happened, bringing them back to God. In the still of the night, I wonder if this is a wakeup call from God that we need to heed. One telling us to stop being so self-centered and to take better care of our world and the people around us. Telling us that all people are loved and when one person hurts in one part of the world, it affects all of us, not just “those people over there”. Several years ago (1967 to be precise based on a study by Stanley Milgram), a prevalent philosophy was that we were only 6 degrees (or six people) away from anyone in the world we wanted to know. Now, with the onslaught of social media and internet connectivity, that has been reduced to 3 degrees, through 3 main networks – family, friends and work using social media based on a study done by the French mobile carrier O2. Perhaps it’s time to revist the 6 degrees of separation philosophy with a new mindset that everyone within those 6 degrees is my brother or my sister and should be treated as such.