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