Six Word Story of COVID-19

“If you’re going through hell keep going.“

-Winston Churchill,
British Prime Minister

We have been talking about, writing and sharing six-word stories for many years now.

You all know how I value them as a way to briefly foster closure on a period in time, reflection on a powerful moment or inspire new growth for challenges ahead. I can think of no more important time to reflect than right now, as my county turns from Yellow Phase to Green.

I will admit more cautious optimism than excitement as well as the peculiar feeling of loss that I had been writing about earlier. We’re here. It’s time to reflect on masks, sanitizer, rubber gloves and virtual hang outs. It’s time to look toward social distance barbeques and beach trips. It’s time, most of all, to be knee-quiveringly grateful that we made it this far. God bless and care for the families of those who haven’t or still might not. Because changing colors doesn’t make it over. But it does make it a hopeful breed of different.

So, my words. Usually, I don’t unpack them. Today I will, a wee bit.

“Corona came; we remain Stronger Together.”

I was, and am, concerned about the virus. We took precautions as a family to ensure our physical, emotional and mental health. We shared them with many. I did so here.

Nearly 20 years ago I read in a Jewish Studies class that Adam and Eve were created perfect, but that each would still be stronger together than either was alone, by design. That became a motto of my wife and I’s courtship. It’s engraved in my engagement ring. Yes, I have one. Sorry you’re jealous.

As Corona hit, I looked at a picture my wife and I hang in our living room–that phrase constructed of found object photographs many times. Our “Stronger Together” grew to include our daughter twelve years ago. It grew to include our shared families and friends. Then over these last three chromatic months, it grew to include our street, our town, our extended friends via Zoom, our workmates which we now saw in their relaxed home and family habitats; our whole nation and world.

We are stronger together now, America. We disagree, still, but we are stronger. Let’s continue to fight Corona. Let’s build a better normal not just a new one. A normal where every race, color, gender identity and nationality has justice and safety. A normal where family is not just a byproduct of adult work life, but a homestead which blossoms the crop of our career from its soil. A normal that doesn’t look back on Red and Yellow Phases as a total loss, but a lesson in slower, simpler, richer living and forge tomorrow upon it.

Let’s move into Green, but always remember Red.

Let’s get even stronger together.