Panic buying won't help. This will.

Every day, new news about COVID19 comes closer to home. Personal friends and professional acquaintances are in self-quarantine, due to varying sources of exposure. Those of us who are healthy are frustrated at best and fearful at worst. Frustration and fear multiply when we feel powerless to take action – which probably explains toilet paper and bottled water flying off store shelves. No, it doesn’t make much sense but it feels like something you can DO.

I'd like to propose an alternative suggestion for productive action. I moved to a new neighborhood 18 months ago. To my chagrin, I still know very few people in the adjacent townhomes. Most of us drive straight out of our garages to our various workplaces without ever engaging – or even seeing – each other. We work long hours and socialize with old friends or work colleagues, not neighbors. When I moved in, I made an effort to meet neighbors, and met a few, but not many. Hopefully this doesn’t describe you too, but the odds are good that it does.  

As we work as a nation to slow the spread of this disease, more people will be going into isolation or self-quarantine. Maybe the retired service member next door. Maybe the single mother with a special needs child up the block.  (And no, COVID19 doesn’t “only affect the elderly…”). Maybe you. Some will get sick, some will not. All are likely to feel painfully alone, at some point. All are likely to need a hand at some point, since most of us DON’T have everything we need in our houses for two weeks’ isolation. A gallon of milk dropped off for someone in quarantine; picking up newspapers in the driveway for someone who is sick. A phone call from a neighbor to ease the strain of being hundreds of miles away from the closest family member. The vast majority of people who get this disease can get better on their own – but being alone, isolated, fearful and/or out of necessities is not going to help that process. And, we don’t want people who are infected having to make emergency runs for groceries. If we can help and support people’s healing in the isolation of their own homes, we reduce everyone’s exposure, and also take some burden off our local healthcare providers – which may become critically important. 

I’m not suggesting taking action that increases your exposure. I’m suggesting that NOW, while the vast majority of us are well, we each take proactive steps to build up the resilience of our immediate neighborhood. Call a neighbor you haven’t seen in a while. Trade phone numbers with neighbors you don’t know well. Build a phone list for your street, if appropriate. Introduce yourself to the new people on the block, and tell them they can contact you. Propose in advance to help each other in specific ways, if needed. “Social distancing” will be important; social isolation will be a disaster. Take one action each day to reach out. Let’s fight this disease in a way that will make us all stronger. 

Not sure how to start this conversation? Print out the last two paragraphs, add a personal note and your contact information, and slide it under your neighbor’s door.  I'll be doing this, and I'd love to hear others' experiences if you try it.

#knowyourneighbors #socialdistancing #wontyoubemyneighbor