Positive Spin on Covid-19
“Someday we might look back on this,” said Sergeant Horvath, “And decide that saving Private Ryan was the one decent thing we were able to pull out of this whole godawful, shitty mess.” I think it might be an exercise in hope and perseverance to take a look at our current godawful, shitty mess and decide what decent thing we can pull out of it. First of all, can we agree that driving into a workplace is sometimes, for some workers, completely unnecessary and useless? I have not driven to work since March. My commute was 27 miles one way. I now starting working a half-hour earlier every day after sleeping an extra hour every night, which makes the quality of my work that much greater. I don’t have to prepare my lunch, so I save more time every morning. I am saving a lot of money not buying fuel. |
If I have home projects to work on, I start on them as soon as work is over at 5 pm, instead of not doing them at all, because I have to drive home and then it’s dinner time and then it’s dark or I’m too wiped out to work on a home project. Yes, we have had to make some adjustments at home, but it has not been difficult. I think we’re all getting along better, my wife and myself and my high-school age son, who is logging about half as much time with online school as he was with onsite school.
Distractions are minor. I sometimes have to let the dog out. Are we saying there are no distractions in the workplace? Come ON. I am much more worried about my wife seeing that I am surfing the ‘net while working than about my boss seeing it, so my nose is to the grindstone all day long.
There have been exactly zero times in nearly two months that I have absolutely needed to be at work. The results are not that great, but that’s because the economy is on-hold. If times were normal, I have no doubt that my results would be above normal.
Can we agree that we all waste more time and money than is necessary going places outside the home, in normal times? Is the beer at the restaurant really so much better in that atmosphere that it’s working paying triple what it costs to have it delivered by the grocer and drank at your dining room table with takeout? Are we really worse off because we can’t frequent alcohol drinking establishments? Is listening to music at a concert such a better experience that we would rather pay $80 for a ticket, and then have to deal with the smelly drunk dude in front of us than listen to the artist’s entire catalog, and that of almost every other musical artist, on Apple music for a monthly subscription fee? Do we really want to visit our friends and relatives that we complain about having to visit?
I get it – the economy is built, in large part, on businesses that are in real danger right now. We can build the economy on whatever we want – why don’t we take this opportunity to build it on something of value?
Can we agree that our mobile lifestyle really is killing the environment? Is it really going to be a virus that saves the planet? Can we just change how we live and only drive or fly when it’s really important? Can we stop thinking globally and start to think locally once in awhile?
Decent things we can take out of this whole godawful, shitty mess – let’s find them, hold onto them, and take them into the future.
Nick Kemper
Distractions are minor. I sometimes have to let the dog out. Are we saying there are no distractions in the workplace? Come ON. I am much more worried about my wife seeing that I am surfing the ‘net while working than about my boss seeing it, so my nose is to the grindstone all day long.
There have been exactly zero times in nearly two months that I have absolutely needed to be at work. The results are not that great, but that’s because the economy is on-hold. If times were normal, I have no doubt that my results would be above normal.
Can we agree that we all waste more time and money than is necessary going places outside the home, in normal times? Is the beer at the restaurant really so much better in that atmosphere that it’s working paying triple what it costs to have it delivered by the grocer and drank at your dining room table with takeout? Are we really worse off because we can’t frequent alcohol drinking establishments? Is listening to music at a concert such a better experience that we would rather pay $80 for a ticket, and then have to deal with the smelly drunk dude in front of us than listen to the artist’s entire catalog, and that of almost every other musical artist, on Apple music for a monthly subscription fee? Do we really want to visit our friends and relatives that we complain about having to visit?
I get it – the economy is built, in large part, on businesses that are in real danger right now. We can build the economy on whatever we want – why don’t we take this opportunity to build it on something of value?
Can we agree that our mobile lifestyle really is killing the environment? Is it really going to be a virus that saves the planet? Can we just change how we live and only drive or fly when it’s really important? Can we stop thinking globally and start to think locally once in awhile?
Decent things we can take out of this whole godawful, shitty mess – let’s find them, hold onto them, and take them into the future.
Nick Kemper