Coping with COVID-19

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With the temperature approaching 70 degrees this morning, I was out the door like a flash.

I told you in my last message to avoid watching the news, that it would just produce more anxiety.

I have personally decided to cut back on the amount of news I’m watching on the television these days.  It is too fear producing and I am completely powerless over what I’m being shown.

Boredom seems to be a real enemy during this extended period of social isolation. When we’re in school, the only unstructured time is lunch. We know how long our classes last. We know who we’re going to see in the hall in between classes and everything seems to fit nicely into the pre-packaged day. Not so much now!

This is a scary period. Before my time and way before your time, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt told the country, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” He was talking about the Great Depression which sent millions of people out of work. Was FDR right?

One of the toughest things about our current situation is that we are out of our routine of seeing our friends many times every day. That isolation can lead to loneliness or hopelessness. As the Reverend Valerie Austin writes in her poem, “The Cover of Night." “Under the cover of night I write, Alone; wrestling in shadows and through the darkness; tripping over many unseen messes; Confused, disoriented, and tempted to feel hopeless.” But there is a strategy to counteract this loneliness.

These are confusing times.  Normally, when we have an unexpected day off from school, we can hardly wait to celebrate.  As a teacher, I remember waiting for the phone to ring at 4:30 in the morning announcing a snow-day.  But, this is different.