The Corona Virus Experiment: Alone Together

If any science fiction writer had suggested the bizarre social experiment we are all undergoing now, we would have said, “You’re crazy!”

Yet here we are, stuck in our own homes, in quarantine, all over the world.

And all because of an invisible COVID-19 virus. 

We wait with apprehension and fear as the number of these novel corona virus cases and the death toll continue to climb. 

Since things got more dire, we hear from public health officials and politicians daily telling us how to fight this pandemic: wash your hands. Disinfect everything you might possibly touch. Do not achoo and hack all over the place, but in your sleeve.

But what we really have to do is keep away from each other—a good six feet away. 

As the virus and its consequences gain traction, we hope governments have acted with clarity of thought early enough to enact policies that will help us thrive again when this is all over. We want to make sure people get health care, don’t become poorer than they need to, that businesses stay afloat and the stock market doesn’t drop faster than a large stone dropped into a deep well.

A few days ago, Canadians were told in no uncertain terms, “Go home and stay home!” But how will we do it—alone together? Maybe the first thing to do to lessen panic is to firmly press the ‘off’ button on the TV, with its 24/7 corona coverage. Check devices often enough to get the information you need and then keep on with life.

It feels as if we are hunkering down during war time. Now it is up to us to keep our communities going—for an uncertain length of time. Every child on the planet cheered when they heard about the ‘no school’ rule, but then they found out they couldn’t play in neighbourhood parks or get together with their friends or go outside of the house. As for the adults? No more getting together for any social event—even the seats in coffee shops and restaurants have been pulled out from under us. We will all remember where we had Our Last Coffee; when we last got together with friends, ‘in person; when we last went into the office or shop.

Many stores and businesses are closed, streets look emptier and fewer people are on the sidewalks. Dogs and their walkers seem to be the biggest thing going on these days. And gasoline is a jaw-dropping 65 cents a litre.

 In Italy, one of the hardest-hit places in the world, the number of video calls went up tenfold after lockdowns started.

It’s a new way of life. We’re on the phone a lot more, keeping in touch with others, particularly elderly friends and relatives, to cheer them up and offer to bring over groceries. People have held virtual birthday parties or organized group quiz games and baking challenges on-line or found new things to learn. These social interactions will become more important in the weeks ahead. 

Seared in our thoughts will be housebound people in Italy singing with each other as they stood on their balconies. Restaurants are donating their stocks of food and supplies to Food Banks and other organizations. How about the panic buying and empty shelves? We certainly won’t forget the hoarders. They need a closetful of toilet paper and 84 cans of chick peas to keep them company during their isolation, leaving others scrambling.

The pioneering doctors in China who gave their lives warning about the dangers of this new, unknown disease, and the thousands of health care workers there and all over the world on the front lines will be hailed as heroes for years to come. Under the ‘hero’ category, too, are the people who provide essential services, including grocery store staff, who come in to work for us at daily risk to themselves. 

And most poignant: the reunions.

One image will stay with me forever. One of our nieces left before March Break for the Philippines with her husband and two young girls for her parents’ 50th wedding anniversary. While they were there, the COVID-19 epidemic caught fire. Their photos on-line showed the two little girls wearing surgical masks. A couple of weeks into their stay they heard: Manila and the airport would be closed in 72 hours. In the nick of time, they got one of the last, overly-costly flights going out. They came home safely and are self-isolating at home for two weeks. But two weeks for a grandparent is an eternity. They had to see the grandkids. Within a day or two, there were Tina and Lorenzo, standing in the backyard separated from Maya and Chiara by the glass of the sliding door. There were tears and pantomimed hugs. 

Stories like this and our resilience in weathering this crisis will be told all over our planet for years to come.

There's a 5,000 year-old life form in my kitchen

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It's tall, it's lovely and its frondy top looks like green fireworks going off in all directions.

I see the history of civilization preserved in its sturdy stems every time I look at my papyrus plant towering beside the kitchen window.

Now I do have a confession: my plant itself isn’t exactly 5,000 years old. It’s more like three. And I (and it) have never even been near the Nile River. 

I first met the descendants of these storied civilization-changing plants at the Kennedy Greenhouses, just south of Stouffville. There was a whole table of these wondrous baby plants. It was love at first sight. I hope the forebears of my majestic plant were in sight of at least a couple of pyramids, and maybe a Sphinx or two. Maybe camels plodded through the sifting Egyptian sands in the background.

These pithy triangular stalks have been used by various peoples to record the triumphs, disasters and the mundane of humanity—for about five millennia.

And write they did: in Aramaic, Greek and Egyptian hieroglyphs. The Library at Alexandria, Egypt, is reputed to have had 700,000 volumes, many of them papyrus. They recorded knowledge of medicine and science, how materials were transported on the Nile River, gave details about the lives of workers building the pyramids and kept track of correspondence with foreign lands. Before papyrus, tablets were impressed with cuneiform writings using a sharpened reed. Papyrus paper was tough, and —big news—it was portable. Roll it up into a scroll or cut it into sheets and away you go.

It is mind-boggling that today’s scholars are still able to read the oldest known papyrus currently at the Cairo Museum 4,500 years later.

Those ancient Egyptians made use of what they had nearby—acres and acres of papyrus plants along the Nile, their fronds waving in the African breezes. It isn’t known who originally came up with the bright idea of cutting these stems into strips, and pressing them for a few days to let their natural ‘glue’ weld them together. 

It’s a great plant to shake vigorously if you are one and a half years old and want to strike terror into Oma’s heart. When spring comes, it is time to lug it onto the back deck—and husbands make themselves scarce. Something about a recurring backache.

But best of all, the papyrus plants have to be divided every year, and that means you get twice as many!

And yes, I have made a little square of papyrus paper, following directions available from the Cairo Museum. It’s doesn’t look as neat and elegant as the official scrolls, but it is papyrus, linked to humanity’s larger history.