metaphors

When I’m at home under California’s “shelter in place” order, am I “at war”? Am I “battling” the Coronavirus by not leaving the house except for essential activities? By doing this, are we going to “beat” it into submission?

I feel like these terms are too violent for what is really happening to me.

What’s going on with me is I’m staying mostly within the walls of my house. I went outside for a little sunshine earlier, and my kids planted a garden. When I talk with people, it’s on the phone, and when I work, it’s from my laptop.

There’s no confrontation going on, like the war imagery suggests. My life is much quieter than that. I just want to help stop the spread of the sickness by not contracting it in the first place.

But I don’t feel that the virus is aggressive, because it’s not alive—at least it doesn’t meet the definition of being biologically alive. Thus, it can’t have an antagonistic intent. In my book, it just exists. It has a method of transmission and an as-yet unknown ability to stay active on surfaces for a period of time.

I don’t know how long it stays viable on a surface, and I’ll spare the lecture of what makes us alive or not. I’m looking at this situation like a writer or a poet, and what I’m feeling doesn’t fit the metaphors I’ve been seeing.

I don’t want to battle a virus, because it hasn’t declared war. It’s not my enemy, it’s just neutral—but its effects are admittedly devastating.

Instead, all I want is for all of us to thrive without coming into contact with it, and I want it to fade into nothingness.

That doesn’t sound like war to me. That sounds like introversion.

It’s not assertion, it’s seclusion.

(I am of course not discussing medicine or preventative steps scientists are making—those can be active and may merit the war metaphors. But what I’m doing—typing on my laptop on a sunny day while the cat naps close by—is not war. It’s maintaining health.)

So how do we thrive?

By doubling down on what we are doing. Staying home and staying clean and sanitary. Focusing on keeping up our health. Not engaging in activities that increase even a modicum of risk, because then we keep the risk level down for everyone. We keep those trends and exponential graphs from spiking in horrific ways.

But we also thrive by keeping our spirits up. Staying hopeful that if we stay in seclusion long enough, this will dissipate. That we can find cures. That we can ease the economic burdens and major disruptions. That we can have patience with each other and use this opportunity to get more efficient and put into place necessary technologies that will enhance our lives.

And use old-fashioned thriving skills like spending time with our families, reading a good book, or finally pursuing that hobby I wanted to do years ago.

So what do I call this?

Living.

My life this week is not a battle or a war. Instead, it’s the very opposite of war. It’s creation.

Being sensible and focusing on thriving and enjoying the moment, while keeping fear and anxiety at bay.

Trying to be an uplifter instead of a doomsdayer.

May you thrive today and every day, especially while we “battle” this virus. And may you do so quietly and comfortably, with as little disruptions as possible.

Don’t forget to reach out, too. We all need each other more than ever.