What changes can come from the pandemic?

What “good” can come 

from the pandemic?  

Part 2

We’re not denying the bad effect of the Covid19 pandemic but trying to focus on the possibility of finding some good things to come out of it.

I was fascinated years ago when reading about the Black Plague hitting Europe in the 14th Century.  That plague killed perhaps 50 million people.  

I read that one religious group wasn’t affected as much.   It is interesting to check out what they were doing differently.   

It appeared that they had many rules referring to sanitation… what you should eat, what you should touch, etc.   

This was the century when you had to watch out when walking along a street because household garbage and you can guess what else, was thrown out the upper windows.

Get the point?

At the start of the quarantine…

It seemed a little strange that I had just picked up a book, published in 2020, at the library telling how technologies were transforming business, industries and our lives.  (Title: The Future is Faster Than You Think.)

One study stated that the internet created 2.6 new jobs for every one it eliminated.

So what can we look for from a pandemic?  

The “Bard of Sogn Valley”

Here are some of the thoughts from Joe Garbarino from “Lake CoVidBeGone”.  (Hmmm.  I remember Lake Wobegon from A Prairie Home Companion.  Must be nearby.)

Here’s what Joe predicts:

My Bold Predictions for the Post CoVid World.  OK. So some are obvious.  

These are the “macro “ changes I see for the world where we will live.

Work at home…

Businesses will accelerate converting to more or all personnel permanently working at home. A lot of businesses will now view buying and maintaining a physical building is a big expense and time commitment. 

 Robots…

  Robotics will accelerate. Human workers will be seen as an expensive and fragile option. Just like hi tech military jets became drones because pilots became the weak link requiring too much support material.

Groceries…

  Grocery delivery systems will become a significant market share even outside of major urban areas. Local product delivery will eat into Amazon’s market share.

Restaurants…

  Eateries will expand their outside capacity for immediate social distancing reasons. But it will remain seasonally.

Remodeling…

Remodeling will be the construction industries’ sweet spot. Homes being modified for better home office space. Businesses becoming more social distance friendly.

Travel Industry…

  Who knows? Consumer attitudes will shape it. CEOs will be largely reactive.

Disposable products…

Disposable products will be back in style. Don’t bring your old cloth bag back to Aldi’s. Please use that disposable straw. Disposable restaurant table settings because who knows who ate off that plate or how well it was washed.

Large crowds…

Big crowds of people will be ones we know. Company picnic, Parish festivals. Want to kill attendance? Advertise as “This event will attract people from all over the world !”  

Elderly…

Care for the Elderly. More choosing to care Grandma at home than at “Petri Dish-like” nursing homes.

Career Choices…

Health related companies become a consideration.  

Rural migration…

With internet, working at home, and health issues… suddenly living in Podunk seems more attractive.

X Factor…

There will be a major shift in something we can’t now see - but in hindsight it will seem obvious.

***

(To our readers:  Your ideas on possibilities for the future are welcome.  There’s always favorite stock investment tips!)

Can anything good...

Can anything good come

 from the pandemic?

    The pandemic crisis changed lives… 

But besides recognizing the difficult things… can we see any changes that could be used for good? That could make your life better,,, easier… more thoughtful? 

Or finally just obeying your mom who told you to wash your hands and stop touching your face!

Future scenarios?

Easier and safer visits to the doctor.  How about having doctor visits via “Zoom”- no contagion spread in waiting rooms which used to be petrie dishes of possible contamination or just miserably long waiting times.

More online meetings - a person doesn’t have to travel distances to present a 15 minute update.  Also, while watching online you can work out - clean your desk - or make snacks!  (Or scratch!) 

If you’re sick - zoom-watch: your church service, city council meeting, book discussion group, etc.

More online shopping… at least to check out what each store has to offer so you can get in and out quicker.

Keeping up with neighbors.  No, you’re not snoopy…well, maybe a little!  But they can be a safety net surrounding you.

Thoughts from folks on Facebook

So here are some ideas from folks on Facebook’s  “Cannon Falls Open Forum”.  

Emily Springer

“…thinking of “growing some of my own food (better gardening), the need to control more of where I spend my money (locally, smaller businesses), the importance of making and maintaining connections (phone calls, writing letters, sending birthday cards, letting people know you're thinking of them), how much clutter I've allowed into the lives of my family (over obligations, strict timelines, little free time, unnecessary physical items in our home).

“The importance of positive and realistic talks with the family about serious issues (we can be flexible, resilient, compromising, compassionate, and loving even in hard times of uncertainty and a lack of control) and allowing to hear their concerns... listening.

“Ultimately, it makes me re-evaluate and re-focus on how we want to live our lives and what's important. 

“Again, this is a personal perspective, I understand many cannot see the light in these "times as they are extremely strenuous, and my thoughts are with everyone who is struggling right now.”

Dawn Lanning  

“Young families enjoying time together instead of running from one activity to another.  Working from home -- employers are finding that employees may even be more productive working from home because they are happier and can better manage family and work life.”

Jean Radke  

  “I think people are learning they don't need everything and to be grateful for what you have.  Also  I think a lot of families are spending more time with their children at home and not running around. I also think that it's going to make people think: do I really need all the things that I have to have?”

Corey Landon  

“Community gardens/hobby farms would be good for if there were to ever be food shortages. Would most likely be a lot better for you too.”

Suzie Stachowski  

“I would hope that those who can work from home will. It helps decrease pollution, less traffic and maybe (we) won’t have keep building wider highways, etc.”

 More suggestions in following column.

In memory of an editor... and a friend.

A memory of a friend..

Getting to know you…      

  The jobs of a journalist and their editor can be stressful to negotiate. When I left the "big city” for rural Minnesota, a friend asked me how could I do it?   

It wasn’t until I had settled in the country for a couple of years that I got interested in the local newspaper.  I was disturbed by its approach to a situation - so I called the editor to complain.  Dick Dalton took my call and after a few minutes he said: Come in and we’ll discuss it.

Many years later…

It’s over 35 years now and we continued “discussing” things! 

One of the funniest episodes happened in his office. We were on opposite sides on some story.  I have no recollection what it was!

But Dick finally said, “Let’s go home and sleep on it and talk about it in the morning.”  

The next day we were back on opposite sides of his desk and Dick announced that he had changed his mind and had taken my position.   The only problem was that I had changed mine to his!

I said, You can’t do that!  Now we’re just as bad off as before!

But another time…

Another time, I got a story that scooped even the big city television stations. I couldn’t believe the information I was given as a small town reporter.  I had explained to world class attorneys and court house employees and the defendant himself, that I was working for a small town newspaper and wanted to give folks the best information I could - and they all helped me!

But the story happened to involve a close friend of the editor.  When the result of the trial was announced I figured I had a front page story.  But it didn’t get there.

When I saw where the editor had placed it, I “lost it”.  I burst into the newspaper early the next morning and saw the editor working at a table.  I exclaimed, “My story should have been on the front page!” 

He didn’t look at me… I could see he seemed sick… and he said, “I know… I just couldn’t do it.”

I stood still. Nothing to say.  It was then I understood the tragic emotionalism you have to endure when you care about the people that your newspaper will write about.

And I learned to care about an editor who helped me fine tune the journalism career I had chosen.

-30- 

(Old journalistic symbol 
to indicate the “end of story”.)

************
My friend and editor
 passed on 
a couple days 
before my column 
was written. 

What's ahead for you?

Perspective: how do you deal with fear…

The earth’s present pandemic is requiring its inhabitants to alter their life styles in order to change the onward progression of sickness and death.  It is disturbing and fearful for all concerned. 

But to some folks who have seen tragedy in their life before this - it’s simply something to deal with… but not turn yourself into a fear-filled, paranoid acting creature, hiding from life.

This point in time…

Perhaps it’s only in this period of time that people expect a disease to be an unusual event.

What if you lived during the epidemics ravaging the world a hundred years ago?   Or when marauding raiders came pillaging through your little village?

Even American school children in the last century had a taste of programmed fear when they were ordered to hide under their desks as a practice for when Russian bombs would explode outside their windows.  Ever wonder what was being told Russian children?

And remember Korean “Police Action”, Vietnam, etc. 

So while you are “hunkering down”…

Here is some insight from a gentle lady in rural Cannon Falls, who as a child went through the terror of her country being taken over in a revolution.

Marta Garbarino remembers her parents tried to keep her and her sister safe but they couldn’t hide the terror and misery surrounding them in Cuba during that revolution.

She remembers “cowering in bunkers and under beds when the planes dropped bombs and shot down into the towns with their machine guns.” 

And what happened to “grown-ups”?

Marta remembers learning that a cousin of her mother’s had been shot by a firing squad… and that her aunt had been imprisoned for speaking her mind." 

It was terrifying to realize that her father was being held in custody because he refused to sign over the oil refinery of which he was the supervisor. He tried to explain that he did not have the authority to hand it over! 

Their schools closed…

Their Catholic schools were closed and most of the priests and those with religious vocations were forced out of the country.  Food became scarce.  (Not just toilet paper.)

Who could you trust?  

They had to hide during the day “so the government agents wouldn’t know we weren’t in the public school. These were now schools of indoctrination into Communist ideology.”

Marta continued, “There was terror in not knowing which of your neighbors were collaborating with the enemy.   You had to watch what you said to whom.” 

They decided to leave…

Her family knew they would have to leave their homeland.

There was a block in time when they could visit the U.S. and ask for political asylum.  To disguise the fact that they were leaving forever, they could only have “three changes of clothes and one pair of shoes.   

Marta continued, “My mother said one of the hardest things she ever went through was looking out the window of the airplane and seeing her country recede beneath her and knowing she would probably never see it or the rest of her family again.”

“They eventually became naturalized citizens and were always deeply grateful to what they truly believed was the greatest country in the world. They worked hard to live the American Dream.”  

And for Marta?

And then in the fifth grade in a U.S. elementary school, Marta met Joe, the boy she would marry… and end up living on a farm near Cannon Falls, Minnesota... in America.

And what good things can be ahead for you?