A Mirror Factory for 2020 Reflecting on the Pandemic

march 13th

2020 the day america stopped

school shut down businesses closed and

travel was banned

i remember taking home all of my things

that friday because

teachers told us there might not be any

more school i was so excited i was

pumped

but it’s remarkable how quickly that

excitement changed

as we all know schools went virtual

millions lost their jobs and the economy

dropped like an anchor

you all know this guy sars cove too had

single-handedly shut down america and

most of the world at large

and we knew almost nothing about it

humans always fear what they don’t

understand

and let’s face it we were thrown in the

deep end with a cement block tied to our

ankles

and told to swim on march 12th

my grandparents tested positive for

covet 19.

out of the 660 000 residents of

jefferson county alabama

t and pop were the first two documented

cases

a couple of days later my dad tested

positive for the virus as well

and i was scared i wasn’t necessarily

enjoying the first days of turkey season

or hanging out with my friends no i was

stuck inside at home

confused and worried about what the

future was going to hold

even though i wasn’t showing signs of

illness and those in my family who were

sick weren’t experiencing the worst that

the virus has to offer

it was still terrifying because remember

at the time no one knew what to expect

it could be as mild as a common cold or

as dangerous as tuberculosis

there’s a huge difference between a

small cough and needing to be hooked up

to respirators

and i was scared because my loved ones

had this mysterious illness

that no one fully understood and we

always fear

what we don’t understand

and here we are one year later some

still living in that terrified feeling

of confusion

some choosing to move past covenant and

forget about it others trying to sift

through fact

and fiction grasping on any truth they

can find

but by and large there is a sense that

things are turning a corner

we aren’t done with the story of

chronovirus by any means

people are still getting sick people are

still dying

but we are nearing the moment that feels

like the end of a chapter

cases of affection are down mandates are

being lifted people are getting

vaccinated

schools and businesses are reopening and

slowly but surely

the gears that govern our lives are

beginning to turn again

so what now how do we proceed from here

do we keep our eyes on the horizon shoot

for the stars forgetting all about covet

or do we need to stop and take some time

and reflect there’s this line

at the end of one of my favorite books

fahrenheit 451 by ray bradbury

at the end of the book after a nuclear

bomb blows up the city

the leader of the wanderers who lives

outside the city remarks

we’re going to meet a lot of lonely

people in the next week

and then the next month and the next

year

and when they ask us what we’re doing we

can say we’re remembering

come on now let’s go build a mirror

factory

and put out nothing but mirrors for the

next year and all take a long look in

them

we are going to meet a lot of lonely

people

in the next week and in the next month

and in the next year

who will be carrying around a lot of

trauma and pain

from this year-long ordeal according to

the cdc

as of april 18th 2021 566

000 americans are dead from covet 19.

think of the loved ones we’ve lost how

many grandparents

face the end of their lives without

their loved ones next to them to comfort

them

how many children were born that family

couldn’t hold how many people lost their

purpose their jobs their dreams

how many people worked their entire

lives facing obstacles and adversity

only to have their will broken by

coronavirus

imagine you’re a store owner in 2019

you’ve worked your entire life

at a demanding job that you don’t really

like so you can do what you love

and open a restaurant on main street but

then main street shuts down

you lose your restaurant you lose your

reputation and you lose your money

the same money that’s expected to put a

meal on your child’s dinner table

i know we’re going to be in a rush to

rebuild fix things get past this lift

mandates eliminate social distancing

forget about covet

but we cannot rush

the areas in which we need time to

process

and to grieve don’t lose sight

of caring for others in your mad dash to

get back to normal

aside from caring for others we need to

remember the dead

the same leader of the wanderers also

said but even when we had the books on

hand

a long time ago we didn’t use what we

got out of them

we went right on insulting the dead

spitting in the graves of all the poor

ones who died before us

i don’t want us to get to a place of

normalcy

at the expense of forgetting the dead

we need to remember this year not run

from it not

forget about it or pass it off is a

pretty crappy year

we need to immortalize 2020

by reflecting on it by looking in its

face

and saying i don’t fear you

most therapists and counselors will

almost always tell you that the first

step to moving on

is to acknowledge and reflect on your

feelings

rather than bottle them up and ignore

them and honestly

this is going to be the hardest part of

getting back to normal

and i fear it’s going to be the one that

we move past the most

we always ignore the ugly side of life

and let’s face it

we always forget or at least try to

forget our painful experiences

you cut off all communication with the

next lover or you get rid of all photos

and memories of a lost loved one despair

yourself the pain but reflecting

is essential it’s paramount to moving on

if we don’t admit the ways in which we

as individuals weren’t our best selves

this past year

we’ll be haunted by it shame has a funny

way of rearing its ugly head when we

least expect it

and unless we accept those failures our

ghosts will stay with us

for the rest of our lives hindering our

growth

and governing our decisions

to practice what i preach i spent some

time these past few months looking into

the metaphorical mirror

and it was tough one of the things i was

forced to face

is that the world is so much bigger than

me

do you know what i cared about on march

13th we’re going to be out of school

till summer we’re not going to learn

anything this is awesome

i thought it was awesome i didn’t care

about the small business owner

that can barely afford to keep his

restaurant alive i didn’t care about the

nurses and doctors working hard on the

front line to keep us safe

or the residents of nursing homes and

fellow teachers and students

with compromised immune systems or

anyone i thought about the ways

in which i wasn’t doing my best to

contribute to society’s efforts to

flatten the curve

in the ways i wasn’t my best self this

past year

every time i decided to pull my mask

just below my nose

or every time i didn’t really use the

hand sanitizer i was increasing the

chances of someone going through what

could be a million times worse than what

my family went through

all of this i got by staring into that

mirror and reflecting

so let’s all build this mirror factory

we’ll put out nothing but mirrors for

the next year

and we should all take a long look in

them because the only way that we can

truly move forward

is by looking behind us and reflecting

thank you