Learning from Elders

Coronavirus Diaries

I just spent some time over the last few days checking in on some elders who live far from me.

I also talked to others who are nearby— and who I’ll be spending some time with as we hunker down for the next weeks to “flatten the curve” of the coronavirus spread in the US.

Though despised repeatedly in this culture that champions youth over everyone else— and this happens on the left as well— they have so much to teach us about empathy and solidarity, about hardship and forbearance, about grace and dignity.

If only we will listen.

Talking about the virus with people who know they are sitting in its crosshairs is so different than talking about it with everyone else.

The coronavirus discussion with elders goes from talking about the disruption it has caused in daily life to actually thinking about its impact on the body itself.

But the real eye-opener was to see their calmness through all of it, coming from the fact of living in this world for so long.

Because it’s not like it’s the first time that they have faced such fears.

Or faced the need to be careful about germs and touch. Or the possibility that suffering and even loss might be involved.

It’s not the first time they’ve experienced how the planet can completely change course in a matter of months.

Some of these elders, especially if they lived in poorer countries when they were younger, have lived through so much sickness, violence, and uncertainty that they know exactly what they need to do, the frame of mind they need to have.

Typhoid. Tuberculosis. Cholera.

Wars and riots.

Curfews and shutdowns.

School and office closures due to strikes and upheavals.

And beyond all of this, they have been parents and grandparents and care-givers. They have sacrificed for others. They are why we are here.

And so you know what their first action often is when you talk to them about the coronavirus?

To ask how we are doing. To soothe our fears. To make sure we are not too worried, and…

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