Three Principles To Guide Us Through 2022
With Omicron and Delta spreading, the number of people who are vaccinated stagnated, no vaccines available for kids 0-4, a short supply of tests, and a stressed/stretched healthcare system —
the first few weeks/months of 2022 are going to be challenging in every way.
A lot of people are already sick with COVID (and some influenza cases, too). And the likelihood that the rest of us will get sick is really high (unless you are able to truly live in a bubble).
For my unvaccinated friends, you will likely be told to quarantine in the coming days/weeks. And your chances of being diagnosed with COVID are still 5 times higher than those of us who are vaccinated. If you are unvaccinated, your chances of dying from COVID are 13 times higher than individuals who have been vaccinated.
Case counts are up 200% in the United States this week.
Please get vaccinated.
As I prepare to put my kids on the school bus tomorrow morning, I am saying a prayer that booster shots for 12-15-year-olds will be made available this week. I am also requiring that they wear masks all day (except for lunchtime).
And I am emotionally preparing for a potential COVID diagnosis (or 4) in 2022.
You should be prepared, too.
Speaking of the new year… I am not a resolution type of person (I dream big and set big goals), but I am taking three experiences/lessons from 2020-2021 and using them to develop a set of guiding principles for the new year. I share them here as both a way of documenting the new year and as a way of encouraging you as we head into year three of the pandemic.
Principle 1: Repurposed beauty
As I shared on social media recently, there are a handful of new(ish) floral Lego sets. My daughter received one of the bouquets as a Christmas gift. These sets include Lego pieces from other sets (read: the leftover or reject pieces) to create beauty.
The leaves on the flower stem pictured here are actually the wings from a pterodactyl set. It is amazing, right?
Each time I look at this beautiful bouquet of flowers, I am reminded that beauty does come from ashes (or rejected Lego pieces). It also reminds me that I need to be open to the new opportunities (and even the challenges) that come my way. Though I may think I am designed for one specific purpose, I could easily be repurposed in order to bring beauty to the world in expected and amazing ways. I need to be open to creating (new) beauty in my life — maybe from the ashes, maybe from something that is yet to be, maybe from something that I have long overlooked. But I need to be open and willing to explore, create anew, try to put the previously unconnected together in order to create more a beautiful world around me.
Principle 2: Lead by Example & Love NOT through Sacrifice
Early in 2021, I stumbled upon a friend’s Facebook feed where they were wishing their mom a happy birthday. The post went something like this… to my mom, who always puts her wants behind those of her family. While the sentiment could be classified as lovely, I was immediately upset by the post and those words played over and over in my mind (like a nightmare). To fully explain why these words set my brain on fire, this post would be Tolstoy long. So here is the Cliffs Notes version —
What I first imagined was my daughter in the future with her own kids (work with me here). I imagined my daughter’s child (my imaginary grandchild) saying this about her mom/my daughter. And I was livid; I imagined my daughter had given up ballet, art, reading, pacing up and down the street barefoot, recording her daily steps, timing her showers, and her “friends in conversation” google chat group. She gave up everything that she loved, all of her wants and dreams, hid all of her gifts and talents in order to please her family? to put their wants above her own? Wait! What? Is that what being a mother or a parent or a friend is? NO! That is messed up.
I decided at that moment that if I am not fully, 100%, unapologetically me I cannot be a good mom, friend, teacher, communicator, or human being. And if I am not taking care of myself physically, nutritionally, mentally, spiritually, or emotionally, I am a lousy mom, friend, teacher, communicator, and human being.
The safety lecture on airplanes — where they tell you to put your oxygen mask on first before helping others -- has become my North Star. Take care of yourself first so that you have the strength to give to others, work overtime, overcome criticism, and see the joy in your life (both personally and professionally).
This is the example and legacy I want to live out. I do not give up who I am to love my family, my students, or my community more; INSTEAD I do all the work to be the best me — following my dreams, pursuing my calling — because the best me, who has not compromised or said that someone else’s wants are more important, will be the best mom, wife, friend, teacher, communicator, or whatever else I want to be.
Principle 3: Dream Big about a New Normal
The most common question I have been asked during the past two years is “when will things go back to normal?” Honestly, I never know how to respond because normal means something different to everyone. What I think people are asking is “when will COVID not be the headline? when will decisions not be compounded by the complexities of a pandemic?”
Am I right?
The past two years have been everlasting, challenging, exhausting, confusing, polarizing, and complicated (to the infinite power). I think we all want to know when will these feelings and complications go away. Unfortunately, COVID will be part of our lives moving forward. In one way or another, COVID is here to stay. However, at some point equilibrium will be reached (the disease will become endemic), and we will establish plans and policies to manage disease spread into the future. But this is going to take time.
And while we wait, we can take practical steps to decrease community spread (a gentle reminder) by getting vaccinated and then getting boosted, wearing a mask, avoiding crowds, staying home when we feel sick, using rapid tests when gathering, and planning outdoor events, among other things (you know the drill).
I think we should also be dreaming about a new normal.
On March 16, 2020 (one day into the national shutdown), I posted this on Facebook —
“I’m starting to feel the weight of the COVID-19 Pandemic as I listen to the heartbreak of students and watch friends close down their businesses. I’m going to reread each of these books, as they are reminders that (1) we knew a pandemic would come and the public health community is prepared, and (2) the viruses cause disruption and death, but in the end they do not prevail.”
Having read these books (again) and many others (I’m reading only one genre these days — currently reading The Plague Year) — I am reminded that the pandemic will come to an end. The virus will become endemic. But the world will forever be changed.
I want to use the time I have now to reimagine the future.
I want to redefine what normal means for me and for my communities.
I want normal in a post-COVID world to look different than a pre-COVID normal. We have lived through a pandemic, been stripped of our health security, suffered from loneliness, watch countless people die and suffer, and allowed frontline workers across industries to carry the lion’s share of the work and COVID risk.
The pandemic has changed all of us. Our definition of normal must change, too.
I want to rethink what it means to be healthy. In my new definition community health will be intimately tied to individual health. I want to expand medical education for physicians, nurses, and therapists to include a deep study of public health, epidemiology, and biostatistics. I want to rebuild the public health system that is bleeding, broken, and suffering.
I want to figure out how to provide affordable healthcare to all. And I want the backbone of our health insurance policies to be tied to preventative medicine and community/public health.
I want to redesign communities to allow for exercise and community engagement.
I want to rethink education, including sex education and health education in general.
I want to create a world where there is clean air and safe drinking water for all.
I want to create a world where we think about health in all of our policies, and we all understand what the phrase we are all public health means.
Can you imagine using the rest of the pandemic to dream, create, imagine, and plan for a new normal? What if we stopped arguing, doing our own Facebook research, and fighting over the necessity of masks and vaccines (we need both - no argument) — and instead we started building a safer, healthier tomorrow.
What if we brought our best, most whole, most creative, most healthy selves into a space where we could reimagine the new normal?
And what if we created beauty from the ashes of the COVID pandemic?
Will you join me?
Love this. So so profound. Let us hope.