“Look for the Helpers”

“When I was a boy

and I would see scary things

in the news, my mother

would say to me, “Look

for the helpers. You will 

always find people who

are helping.”

Fred Rogers

I must say I have some amazing helpers.

 

And so do you, whether you know them personally or not.

 

There are people on the front lines of this corona virus pandemic who are literally putting their own lives on the line to help the most vulnerable among us: doctors, nurses, first responders, cooks, truck drivers,  store clerks, mail carriers, and more.  They all congregate somewhere in close proximity to others to get whatever it is they’re responsible for delivering to the rest of us.

 

My Facebook friend Marcus Poulin, knowing I’m at risk, is sending me a R95 mask so that if/when I have to go out, I can protect myself.

 

My best friend, Lisa Twining Taylor, is considering exposing herself to the virus to shop for all of the vulnerable people in her life, including me. And she’s no spring chicken herself.

 

But doing so will require her to leave her main source of income to isolate herself afterward, since she cares for a 95-year old. I’m doing my best to talk her out of it, because risking her own life  and income to serve my needs, or anyone else’s, is anathema to me.

 

(In this regard, I feel a lot like Bones did in The Empath, when Gem offered her life for his: “I can’t destroy life, even if it’s to save my own.” So, “Not only no, but hell no.” My life simply isn’t that precious to me, that I’d blithely allow someone else to even risk exchanging theirs for it.)

 

And yet…and yet… tens of thousands of nameless, faceless people are doing that for me right now. And for you!

 

It makes me cry to even verbalize that.  People are dying in their efforts to help us. Doctors are dying. Nurses are dying.  But because we don’t know their names–because they aren’t our best friends or personal loved ones–we accept risking their necks.

 

Some even expect it: “You knew what you signed up for when you took the job.”

 

But these people didn’t join the armed forces or get drafted, where putting one’s life on the line is a daily occurrence and is a keenly-understood risk; these people didn’t expect to find themselves in the middle of a  virus so inimical to human life that it only occurs about every hundred years (or has, so far) to plague the planet and kill people’s loved ones right and left.

 

How must it feel to watch so many people die right before your eyes when you’re a Helper?

 

These are the helpers Mr. Rogers’ was talking about.  Everyday heroes who step up when the need is greatest.

 

If Lisa insists, I will give her the mask Marc is sending me to help protect her. But I’m doing everything in my power to talk her out of it. And I expect to succeed. This is personal to me. Very personal. I’d rather die than lose my best friend.

 

We can shop virtually these days. We don’t have to send loved ones out to risk their necks on our behalf.

 

We don’t need to panic. We don’t need to do risky things to get food. We just need to do what the doctors and scientists are saying: maintain social distance (6′ or more), don’t gather in groups larger than ten (family members, essentially), stay home as much as possible, cover our coughs and sneezes, wash our hands, and practice other immaculate virus mitigation protocols.

 

The whole idea is to keep people alive, not to expose more of them to contamination.

 

Although I appreciate the thought and the heart and the love behind it, no civilian should have to risk their lives to help their loved ones.

 

And no civilian should be so cavalier as to think the virus can’t happen to them, because it can, and it has, and those who act recklessly right now put everyone else at risk…

 

This is an unprecedented challenge to all of us who are alive today.  It’s like the Black Plague or the Spanish flu, only ten times more virulent than the common flu.  It is truly dystopian in its nature.

 

I beg everyone to take it seriously and do everything in your power to keep yourself and your loved ones safe. AVOID as best you can exposing yourself to this virus.

 

Live and shop virtually for now. Sanitize your keyboards, door knobs and other common area touch points frequently.

 

The people you come into contact with during these trying times need to take precautions to make sure both parties are as squeaky-clean and virus-free as they can make themselves…