When Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon River in defiance of the Roman Senate, the expression “crossing the Rubicon” was born. It marks a point of no return, a moment of society-altering change.
We are today in such a moment—as individuals, as a community, as a nation, and as a world—and not through the act of a great military general, but rather a small protein wrapped in a layer of fat. And because of it, our daily lives have changed completely, both for today and into the foreseeable future.
Challenge and adversity have the innate ability to bring out the best and worst in us as humankind. As the COVID-19 situation has shown, when things look dire, some will rise to help their neighbours while others become selfish, through intentional action or otherwise. This should not come as a surprise to anyone.
Sometimes it’s a fine line between self-protection and self-protectionism. Well-intentioned and community-minded folks need to keep themselves safe in order to continue to help others. To help without regard for one’s own well-being is a path towards ensuring that your help is short-lived… figuratively and perhaps literally. Those supplying our essential services right now must be prudent to ensure that those services aren’t interrupted even further.
It would be easy to look at social media and think the whole world has gone to hell in a handbasket, but the reality is that we are seeing the extremes. The bulk of the people in our communities have found the right line of keeping themselves safe while assisting those who need our help. Staying at home for most of us is all we are called to do. And for most of us, this could hardly be called a hardship.
For some, this is a challenge. Those whose home is not a safe haven need our help. Those who don’t have family to lean on need our help. So it is not as simple as #stayathome for everyone.
This simple virus has created a variety of issues in our complex and interconnected world, which is precisely what makes our collective experience a game-changer.
I suspect that public policy itself will adjust because of this event. Whether we want to hear it or not, this will not be the last pandemic we see in most of our lifetimes. Our global connections and systems have set a wave of consequences in motion.
But I’m more interested in seeing what we all take out of this experience—and I hope it will be more than a renewed commitment to thorough handwashing. We have seen the vulnerabilities not only of our systems but of ourselves as human beings. If our understanding of which professions are truly essential hasn’t gone through a full-180 degree turn, it sure has turned a damned lot. This baring of the truth is too large and dramatic to be forgotten when the crisis is over.
Will we remember how we worked together as neighbours and a community? Will we continue to seek out those in our community who need assistance and put out calls for help? I wonder if the website launched by the province, Help Next Door, will continue to see the same traffic. Will we cheer on those essential services, if not with clapping and banging of pots then at least with a renewed respect and gratitude?
While my respect for the medical professionals will increase, I also know that I’ll be more inclined to hold the door open at Tim Horton’s for that truck driver who’s stopping for a much-needed break. Heck, I hope a few of us even take the opportunity to buy him a double-double out of gratitude. And the next time we’re at the grocery store, will we complain about the line-up or lack of open cashiers? Or will it be a word of thanks that comes out of our mouths?
It is my hope that this attitude of gratitude does become the new normal… when normal returns. I can stomach the rotten tree of this pandemic if I know there’s the fruit of renewed community soon to sprout from its limbs. Whether we choose to pick it will be up to us.
When history records the Great Arse-Wipe Crisis of 2020, I hope it’s not just the toilet paper hoarders who are documented but also the offers for delivery of rolls to those in need—not just for accuracy and posterity, but because this is a lesson we all need to remember.
