Dining out with friends is impossible during COVID-19, but not forever. Photo: supplied.
After a month of social distancing and staying home, it’s time to start thinking about the world we want to live in after the COVID-19 pandemic is over.
This quiet time is being called The Great Pause, and some people say it’s a gift. Certainly, I’ve never had a month at home before, with no family gatherings, meetings of friends, trips to the mall or weekends away.
I’m enjoying the slowness and the time to reflect, but a pandemic that has killed thousands of people cannot truly be called a gift. Having said that, there’s nothing wrong with considering the possibility of creating a better world for “after.” There’s no going back to the time before, so it’s an opportunity to move forward with conscious purpose.
Now we’ve proven we can make massive change in a matter of days or weeks; let’s start thinking about the change we want, rather than the change we’re forced to make or that is thrust upon us.
I can’t wait for the day that I get dine out or go for coffee with family or friends in a bustling restaurant, noisy, with people all around us laughing and talking about things unrelated to the coronavirus. The world I want to create definitely includes restaurants. And hugs. And family dinners, birthday parties, weddings, graduations, and yes, even funerals.
It also includes things like better income supports for people who are unemployed or unable to work, more secure and better-paid jobs for care home workers and grocery store employees, and a safe supply of drugs for people who are addicted. Online doctor’s appointments and insurance renewals are conveniences whose time has come.
I first worked from home in 1992. If I could do it then, with a six-week-old baby, a fax machine and an offline computer, we can all do it in 2020. Mother Nature will thank us for getting all those cars out of the gridlock – commuting is a waste of time, resources, emissions.
It’s not that I think all jobs all the time should be done from home. For instance, I’m a university journalism instructor and I believe many of my classes are best taught in person. However, I also know that some of them could easily be taught online.
Kindergarten through Grade 12 classes are best taught in person, other than perhaps the odd exception for self-motivated high school students or those whose parents are committed to home schooling.
I love travel. I’ve travelled a lot. But there is something wrong in a world where a flight to Europe cost more in 1987 than it does in 2020 and inter-city flights are now cheaper than train or bus trips. As much as I hate to say it, this has to change. I don’t know exactly how to change it, but something needs to give people pause before taking flights – perhaps there could be a mandatory surcharge on flights to pay for cleaning up the ocean or planting trees. It has to be something real, but also it has to cost enough that people will think twice about flying and make their trips really count.
With more people working from home and discovering virtual meetings, corporate travel will likely shrink, and the Earth will thank us for that.
In Canada, where have a vast, sparsely populated country, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said parliamentarians are considering ways to hold a virtual Parliament. To my mind, that’s something that should have happened 15 years ago, to save time, energy and emissions. I’m not opposed to occasional sessions where all Members of Parliament gather in person, but it shouldn’t be the norm.
While we’re all waiting for a vaccine or a cure, let’s think about ways to make the world a better place.
What kind of a world do you want for “after?” Let me know in the comments section.
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