I’m straddling two very separate worlds at the moment.
One world is what I see in front of me as I write this. A peaceful verandah, a beautiful garden to look at, and nothing but wind chimes and birds chirping to distract me.
Then there’s the other world. People dying, news channels churning out terrifying statistics, politicians scrambling to outline a response, and academics & medical professionals battling it out in journals and editorials over how big a threat this is and what we should be doing.
It’s all a bit much, right? So, I’ve made a habit of shutting down and coming back to world # 1. Let the pros come up with the answers and I’ll do whatever they tell me to do. The thing is, as my dad pointed out, this problem is not going away just because I choose to hide from it. And there is no ‘final’ answer. We are all figuring this out as we go along. The question is, do I want to be a part of the vast community of people banding together to try and solve this problem?
I’m wondering: Is there a way to put aside all this worry, fear, anger, denial, and name-calling, and instead focus what I can control? I’m a writer, and what I can control are the words I use to tell people’s stories. So, I plan to face the dying, the terrifying statistics, and the war of ideas … but transform the lessons into practical, positive steps we can all take to make our community just a bit better than it was yesterday.
There’s a conversation going on that I now want to be a part of. And I think it’s the kind of FOMO that might actually serve a purpose.