The first time I heard about the pandemic I had no idea what it was. I am not a doctor nor have any medical knowledge at all. I thought it’s a myth, a rumor, a joke or an exaggeration of some kind of disease like so many other things that every minute I hear from friends and family or I find in social media: “The world is going to end by 2012”, “a meteorite is on its way to kick our planet off in a second”, or “lemon cures cancer” which is the funniest one so far, especially for me as a former cancer patient care giver that I tried most of these nonsense. Because of that and because I define myself as a logical, serious and thick skin person, I didn’t take it seriously, as well. In the worst-case scenario, it would be something like chicken flu or swine flu or other diseases that kill thousands of people every year all over the world, I thought. I had no idea how close it would be. Right in my house, right on my face, and I didn’t know who that thousands of people were. Those who lost their lives in the past years, in epidemic or pandemic situations.

They were ordinary people like me, my incuriosity was not because I didn’t care about them, it was because I didn’t see them, I didn’t know them by name. And if I don’t know people, to be honest it’s like those people never exist. There is a saying in Persian, “death is good for their neighbor”, implying those selfish people who don’t care about others. I see these unknown feelings in other people too, on different occasions. The concept of death varies from time to time, person to person, and case by case. The level of pain is different, how one can handle equal amounts of sadness for losing a parent or a child and losing a relative thousands of miles away. Put the fact aside, those who are living far far away, with no connection. As for humanity it is painful, but the sense of survival dominates other feelings. 

The coronavirus shockingly comes and destroys everything on the planet. It bothers me, it repels me, it makes me sad. A tiny, invisible thing makes me worry for my family and friends all over the world. It takes my town, my peace of mind, it takes financial security of me and millions of others. It kills hopes, it takes lives, it destroys sense of safety among human beings. This virus which is million times smaller than a cell knuckled down the biggest and strongest components of the globe. It plunders hospitals and attacks innocent nurses and doctors and faultless patients. Because of Corona, people are deprived of each other’s smiles. The shock was pervasive and made the world numb and clueless at the beginning. The pandemic disease turned to a pandemic panic. Groceries looted, and panic of disease turned to panic of starvation. 

Time passed, one week and two, one month and two, and the virus is still in the air. Social distancing becomes a norm, a new norm, the same as distance working, distance learning, distance coaching and thousands of other distance taskings and doings. People get used to their cabin fevers and resume their life. This resuming makes me happy; kids do not have to spend most of their time at schools, adults do not have to spend most of their time in traffics, stores do not have to spend dollars for keeping their lights on all the time, employers do not have to spend dollars to rent or buy properties while their employees are able to work from home at no cost and with full functionality. Parents are spending more time with children at home. Many people have enough time to make real food and improve their eating habits. Comfort zones are six feet wider and people feel the air while they are stuck in the lines. Everywhere is germ free and odor free. Nobody plans unnecessary trips, and it saves money and tons of fuel, and unwillingly reduces pollution and emission and ecological footprint. People realize that everything can wait, that technologies have lots of potential which we were not aware of, that most meetings, gatherings, trips, and conferences are not necessary.

As a collective entity it is a worthy lesson, we are learning to be more resilient, to be more humane. No matter if I am living in a kiss free, hug free and -under the mask- smile free world, Corona is a bizarre gift that introduces a new lifestyle upon which apparently the world will be built.