Bramblings: The best of times, the worst of times

By BECKY NELSON
I am hoping this is the one and only time I write about COVID-19 in my column. I was going to avoid it at all costs as it is all that fills the airwaves lately. But it has changed our lives in such dramatic ways almost overnight that I feel I must. It is bringing out the very worst in people. My daughter was verbally accosted for buying a month’s worth of something or other a week ago in a box store in the southern part of the state. It is nothing new for her to do so as she grew up in a household where “be prepared” has always been the motto, and the encounter shook her to the core. She and her husband, who works from home, have decided to self-isolate for as long as it takes for the world to calm down a bit and our day-to-day lives to stabilize.

Another relative told a tale of a local nurse running into a local grocery store after her shift who was physically assaulted (punched in the face) for wearing a pair of (clean) scrub pants into the store by a person crazed by fear of the virus. She now wears a big, black eye while she puts her own safety on the line every day in a hospital setting, treating others out of the abundance of empathy, sympathy and love that nurses hold in their hearts.

Yet another relative recently went to a big box store in our neighborhood and watched people snatch items from shelves right in front of others reaching for the same thing and yelling about there being no bologna in the refrigerated section.

It is also bringing out the scammers, hoping to profit on the hard times and the fear and angst that are haunting our nation and world. The naysayers are also very vocal in person and on social media about the disease being a mere cold, about the disease being over-hyped, about those being cautious being foolish.

Yet, it is also bringing out the best in others. Creative ways to keep their businesses open and their staff employed. Deliveries to those that fear going out or are self-isolating. Social distancing when in public places. Preparing new ways to teach our kids. Offering help in a time of what is going to become great need. Responding with leadership, love and hope. This really is the best and the worst of times. Families with children are learning the challenges that teachers face daily and are handed the opportunity to further bond and talk and play with their loved ones. We are faced with the uncertainty of a ruthless virus that may make us physically miserable or even take our lives and may pass to our loved ones if we contract the disease.

Charles Dickens’ work “A Tale of Two Cities” tells a story of two very different characters who look similar but act very differently. We are those two characters. But we need to come together as one. We have to look at those with differing beliefs and try to understand them. We need to gather together and listen to the experts and try to mitigate a disease that the medical community doesn’t have a handle on that might well overwhelm our medical system and put all of us at great peril for our health and our lives in some cases. We need to support one another as jobs are lost, restaurants are shut down, stores are closing and the very nature of our day-to-day lives are turned completely upside down. As I have written before, we need to be kind to one another and be the best we can be in the face of the worst.

Charles Dickens hit the nail on the head in his work “A Tale of Two Cities.” We are the main characters…similar in appearance and opposite in action. To quote the opening of the story, “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”

Calm down, folks. Think your actions through, be creative in adapting to the “new normal” and let us make this the best of times. Look to tomorrow. The grass has begun to grow. The daffodils and crocuses are coming up. The birds are singing. There will be blue skies and lots of sunshine. This is the best of times as is every day that we can open our eyes and walk out into the world. Enjoy the daily gift of life and health and be the best person you can be, and think of those for whom it is going to be a bad day. Give them a nod, a prayer and a smile and be the best person living in your heart in the worst of times.

Becky Nelson is co-owner of Beaver Pond Farm in Newport, New Hampshire. [email protected].