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This blogger has been absent for a long time (hello old friends), but the current world situation has had me thinking.

Everywhere we turn there is heartbreaking and dire news about the Coronavirus. You can’t get away from it, and frankly, we want to stay informed. But it is taking a toll on our spirit, mental health, and the number of hours we are able to sleep. And on our waistline. And our liquor store bill.

As such, I thought, what good could possibly come out of all this? There must be something, right? Some little light at the end of the proverbial tunnel? Maybe not a neon beacon of light, but I’ll take a glimmer, spark, a flicker . . . anything at this point.

I predict we can look forward to these truths . . .

First responders and medical personnel will now be our heroes instead of athletes and movie stars who have more money than they know what to do with.

Truck drivers, janitors, hotel maids, sanitation workers, and the like, will finally get the credit they are due. Their jobs are hard, often thankless, and we will fully realize how we couldn’t get along without them.

Parents who are now home-schooling their children will support massive pay-raises for teachers and childcare providers in the future.

We will never take a roll of toilet paper for granted again.

The number of babies conceived during the initial stages of the pandemic will be high and that number will greatly taper off as the crisis got worse. Regardless, we will have lots of new ones to love!

Divorce rates will soar, but maybe those marriages were doomed anyway.

Less produce and leftovers be thrown away because people will have learned that food can be/might be scarce in ways we didn’t know since the Great Depression. We will no longer take having food for granted.

People will have reconnected to friends and family they haven’t talked to in ages. Maybe age-old fences will be mended. The need for personal connection, not a Facebook poke, is what is important.

Strangers who might never have exchanged two words will have had meaningful conversations.

Some local businesses may not recover, but they will know that their community cared and tried to help out as much as possible.

Returns of purchases of unused goods, clothing, and luxury items will soar as people reprioritize what how they spent their money and now realize they really didn’t need it.

Children will demand to play outside instead of begging for just one more hour playing a video game.

Book sales will continue to soar after the crisis because people will have discovered, or rediscovered, their love of reading

Thrift stores will be inundated with donations when the crisis is over because people will have had time to clean out cupboards and reassess what they really need.

People who had never sewn a stitch, but made face masks for our medical personnel, will find that sewing gives them great pleasure and will continue to sew.

There will be a sustained return to the kitchen in the pursuit of making comfort food instead of grabbing dinner on the run. Homemade pie anyone?

Projects around the house that have languished for days, months, or years, will find themselves happily completed. (I’m talking to you, photos albums I haven’t worked on in years.)

Helping neighbors, seniors, or strangers will continue because people will find that it feels really good to do so.

Political, media, and social media bickering will diminish because we will now know, “we won’t get through this if we don’t do it together.”

Social influencers will focus on the greater good instead of themselves and promoting their latest line of make-up or ridiculous self-serving Instagram posts.

I don’t know if it is just happening in our household, but it appears that the Coronavirus has killed off a lot of robo-callers! We used to get dozens a day.

Someone will invent a creative new way to do a group hug.

Pets will have a new level of fitness and mental happiness from all the time with their humans.

 

That was my initial list of ideas. I’ll probably come up with more, but what positive outcome(s) would you add to this list?

I believe it was William F. Buckley (I’m also not sure if it was Mr. Senior or Junior) who said:

“Industry is the enemy of melancholy.”

Amen to that.

Be safe and get industrious! It will help your tired brain and soul.