Five Things I Propose We Keep in a Post-COVID World
As Phase 3 began across Virginia last month, I’ve been reflecting on these extraordinary times and what this collective pause and subsequent disruption has brought to our lives (and I say that word in both the positive and negative sense) . What changes might we want to keep as we try to resume life as we know it?
Resistance to change and wanting to “go back to normal” is human nature, right? But I think we all realize that going back to the way things were isn’t an option, and not necessarily what we want anyway. Collectively we have a deeper understanding that the old ways weren’t serving everyone.
It is important to note, the “pause” wasn’t felt by everyone equally. This is especially true for those frontline and essential workers, which include many of our nonprofit community organizations, health care workers, social services providers, grocery clerks, and others.
I asked myself what, from this chaotic time, do we want to bring forth permanently into our future? Here’s what I came up with.
Freddy Jackson enjoying sunrise at Ragged Mountain Reservoir
1- Closer Connection to Nature – for Everyone
This morning when I walked along the John Warner Parkway trail before work there was a multi-modal traffic jam of walkers, runners, and bikers. It was so refreshing and heartening. Though there is racial disparity in access to outdoor recreation on a national level, I witnessed people of all ages and races on the trail today. And thanks to campaigns like #BlackinNature and Black Birders Week, awareness has been raised that the outdoors needs to be more inclusive and inviting of people of color. Everyone should feel welcome to enjoy Nature.
Clearer skies, the result of less air pollution, have also enabled the world to see the healing that’s possible when fossil-fuel-dependent travel is significantly reduced. Streets have been opened to non-vehicle traffic in major cities like San Francisco and New York allowing people to experience a less car-centric way of life. I heard a poignant poem on the radio written by an elementary school girl in India who marveled at the beauty of actually seeing the Himalayan mountains for the first time even though they had been there within eyesight of her home all along.
Teri with her teenage son, Ian
2- Quality Time with Family
Okay, so I know at this point we may be beyond tired when it comes to having the kids at home, but even my cantankerous 19 year-old, whose first year of college was cut short due to the pandemic, said to his brother and me, “Mom, it dawned on me recently that we are a closer family than ever because of COVID and all this time we’ve spent together.” It hasn’t been easy, but it’s shown our small family that we can stick together and work together through tough times.
Gardening has had a major resurgence
3- Gardens Gone Wild
I myself have limited garden capabilities, as I live in a small townhome without a backyard, but even I “caught the bug” and planted edible flowers and herbs on my deck (don’t ask me if they survived).
And my friend’s neighbor bucked the HOA rules all together at her townhome neighborhood and ripped out every bush in her front yard and replaced it with vegetable plants. Even her step has garden bags of herbs (see above).
Garden centers have been running low on supplies and COVID-19 victory gardens have been popping up everywhere! And we’re excited about the newly formed Cultivate Charlottesville that has coalesced from three powerful food organizations into one that is feeding, educating, and advocating for access to locally grown, healthy food for everyone in our community.
4- Teleworking
As a communications professional and someone who loves working with the community, working in isolation has definitely been an adjustment. But now that it’s become the norm, I realize the rewards: healthier eating, blocks of intense focus (when my teens are still sleeping in the mornings), and less driving.
When people talk about whether we can eliminate office workspaces altogether, I get very squeamish because I believe change happens more easily through meaningful face-to-face connections. But incorporating working from home two or more times a week could help to reduce our driving emissions significantly as a community. Since COVID, I’ve been biking more and feel much more comfortable using that as a mode of transportation. And since transportation accounts for 48% of emissions in the County, I’d be doing my small part to make a difference. I estimate that working from home 2 days/week would reduce my carbon footprint by 890 lbs. a year - not bad! Collectively, if those of us who are able to, took advantage of biking opportunities, we’d make a huge difference!
Author at recent local Black Lives Matter protest
5- Profound Questioning of Everything
We are in a moment of reckoning right now, as COVID has revealed broken systems across our society—the health care system; a broken economic system; and many longstanding inequities, resulting in this virus having a disproportionate impact on people of color.
The murder of George Floyd sparked outrage and protests and a societal mandate for racial justice in all parts of our lives – our work, our play, our schools, our community. Demanding all of us to ask - what can we do? Because enough is enough. Black Lives Matter.
This continued questioning and a reimagining of our future I would like us to carry forward. Our Executive Director wrote at the beginning of the health crisis that “Climate change, and many other issues will also require new ways of thinking and working together.” Though no one would wish the hurt, pain, and grief this disruption has brought, weirdly it has also brought renewed hope of what a better America could be.
In the words of Langston Hughes poem “Let American be American Again”
O, let America be America again — The land that never has been yet — And yet must be--the land where every man is free. The land that's mine — the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME — Who made America, Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain, Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain, Must bring back our mighty dream again.
I believe we can address both climate and equity with economic recovery packages that keep all people and the planet in mind. Both business leaders and scientists believe we have a “once in a lifetime opportunity” and moral imperative to build back better!
Let’s do it together.
--Teri