Quarantine Initiatives

The Year 2020 so far has been a... thing, to say the least.

What I thought was gonna be a fairly predictably political year, a re-run of 2016, has instead been a soap opera of episodic catastrophe, delivered right to your door and neighborhood. A populace already alienated in many ways from each other found itself literally isolated from each other by stay-at-home orders across the nation, sending millions to the breadline and left with nothing but their online media feeds to fuss over, like a rosary of anxiety. We see the psychic toll, as people feel anger, despair, dazedness, and paralysis. I think those emotions were already a bit high before 2020, but they're now boiled sufficiently to be a force to be reckoned with, and I'll likely talk about it in the coming months more.

But! I made a promise to myself in Shanghai that I would return to America and ardently make it my home, and to lend my hand to its reinvigoration: to make America greater. Finding myself in a position of strength as these calamities hit, I've resolved to do my best to keep my corner of America strong. I've seen many other people do similar and greater things, and I think the merit of these actions are worth recording. Here has been my part:

• I've tried to be lender of first-resort to friends and family: the $1200 from the government was taking too long.
• I helped facilitate a supply line of N95 Respirators to the US from China by asking my network of friends and colleagues there. Those masks helped my family and many doctors and nurses
• I've rekindled friendships with old friends on the internet using video conferencing. These span states, and is a small means of improving the interknittedness of all of us.
• I've started inviting my next door neighbors on walks on the local nature trail. If they find themselves in urgent need, perhaps now they'll feel more comfortable knocking on my door now.
• When a business I support reopens, I try to go there twice as often as I used to: I have plenty of time, and want to help them out.
• I check in on people whose job situation has been affected, and keep an ear to the ground for alternative opportunities for them.
• I have been focusing intensively on learning the Bass guitar and following a strict diet to lose weight, so that I can feel more confident talking to strangers by having something to talk about and model personal growth. If I'm lucky, maybe someone will be inspired to feel they can do the same.
• I make a targetted effort to be an effective cheerleader for my team, and hang out in the shared video chat all day. This makes my workplace feel more 'normal', and keep the wheels rolling even if it'd be easier to self-isolate while coding.

I regret not having started my training towards getting certified as an Emergency Medical Technician. I was about to pull the trigger on it at the local community college right when the pandemic hit and everything shut down. I could've drafted myself to bring folks to the hospital as needed.

I also regret that I hadn't taken as seriously as I should've the imperative to broaden my network of friends. I have a free capacity to help, but I know so few people well enough to know their needs. I want to be someone who is more knowledgeable and available to people's suffering.

Selfishly, I've been largely spared from much pain: my job is simply at home now, and my income is unthreatened. I've gotten to focus on self-mastery, and so I'll likely come out of all of this stronger and more vibrant than before. I'll continue to owe it to others to give a helping hand.

Anyways, that's what's been going on in my zone. Take care out there.