Important things

Dear Editor,
My late father-in-law was a pilot, among other occupations. He had a saying that makes good sense to me. He said there are two important things; the fuel left in your tank, and the runway ahead of you.
What governments might have done and didn’t do, is irrelevant now. The virus is near, and overwhelmingly likely to arrive right here, looking for innocent victims. It will probably take out the old, the ill, the most exposed first, but from what I’ve seen, it’s not a thing one should trifle with, regardless of how young and strong you think you are. And you wouldn’t want to be the one to bring it home to Granny, would you?
We’re near the beginning of a brand spanking new situation, never encountered before in the history of mankind. We’ve been catapulted into instant world citizenship. We face an enemy that really and truly does not care about your nationality, ethnicity, financial status, religious or political affiliation nor what kind of music you favour. You can’t shoot it with a gun, chop it with a machete, burn it with napalm, or nuke it from space. You can’t kill it, because it’s not alive, as we know life. It’s like an internet meme, hacking our email address lists, demanding that we reprogram our lives, or face a major pruning of the human race.
Our society has spent the last decades fairly worshipping big numbers and unrelenting growth - the more people attending a sporting event, a concert, a political rally, the better, the more important it is, right? The more billions of dollars traded, the more barrels of oil squeezed out of Alberta gravel, the more people getting squeezed through airports to jet around and ogle other peoples’ lifestyles, the better. RightIronically (and that’s an adverb you should get used to), what we need to do to minimize the viral damage is to take two weeks off, stay home and NOT gather in large numbers. It’s something only we can do as individuals, voluntarily. The numbers game just reversed polarity. It’s like a lottery, where the tickets are free, and the grand prize is surviving, perhaps to see your community decimated. Just lucky, I guess.
The people who will help you survive are the folks behind the scenes who have been keeping our world running all along, many on low wages. It’s not only the doctors and nurses, it’s the security and maintenance workers, the supply truckers and the waste disposal experts. Give them a smile and a tip of the hat, if you know who they are. The farmers who produce, the truckers who transport, the workers who stock shelves and cash registers, are your best friends. Anything that you can make or source locally, just went up in actual value.
Ironically (again) this shutdown has produced positive consequences, aside from flattening the viral growth curve. Some young Italians are seeing clear skies for the first time in their lives, swans and porpoises are returning to Venice, people are reading, making and watching videos, and singing from the balconies. Environmentally-minded people have suggested such changes, only to be ridiculed for their radical, unworkable ideas. All of a sudden, poof! we’re there.
This could be the new normal. Grow food and trees, not lawns. No more hippie hugs and cheek-kissing, for the foreseeable future. Do jazz hands from six feet away. Smiles and waves are cheap and biodegradable - toss them around freely, like virtual volleyballs. Dancing can be seen and appreciated from a distance - do it. Read or write a book, draw a picture, catch up on the years of creative content in the online video world. Learn what you can from this experience, because the next wave may require yet another set of skills. Focus on the runway ahead of us, and don’t squander the fuel in your tank. Oh, and keep your stick on the ice - we’re all in this together.

Robert Wills
Shawville and Thorne