Silver Linings from the COVID Pandora’s Box

Photo: UNSPLASH

As the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic rages on, left in Pandora’s box after all the death and destruction, there is hope. Though many of us will think it pointless to hope for the best when things seem so bleak, what we can do is hope for ‘the better’. There is no doubt that this global event has brought forth our ‘better angels’, as we can now more clearly see life around us. The lives carrying on right under our own roofs; lives from which we got disconnected when work and the busy grind of the day to day took us away from family, from spouses/partners.

While there seems no escape from the pain and suffering, we find hope in the resilience of our children as they adapt to this new normal. A normal that finds them really getting to know their Mom and Dad, as they shelter and stay safe in place. Mom and Dad find hope in acknowledging that the shift in their circumstances has reshaped how they think. What used to be important, the ‘stuff’ of life, isn’t so much. They’re finding reinvigorated joy in the small things. the things that create memories.

Within each of us is the capacity to hope for better days though some may not be able to return to the job they once had, venturing out to find something different. Paying the bills is obviously the prime motivator, but finding ‘job joy’ is also important.  Perhaps people will explore self-employment drawn from a long abandoned hidden talent. Lots of bakers were born during the pandemic. So, too, many among us revisited hobbies of our youth. How many Van Goghs brushed off their smocks and berets? Maybe there are folks who got back into sewing, quilting, knitting and crocheting. Hand crafted smocks and berets could be big sellers. And then  there’s gardening - both vegetable and flowers. 

  Because of interruptions in food supply chains, there will be a need for fresh  fruit and produce. Might there be men and women  out there thinking bigger, with a resurgence in the age of the gentleman/woman farmer? Dairy farming. Beef cattle farming. Getting back to the basics of daily living. Up at dawn to do old fashioned chores, out in the barns. in the fields. Think of the possibilities. Might the COVID-19 pandemic have the silver lining that New Brunswick has been  looking for? Technology turned  us into emotionally isolated ME people, as we Facebooked, Snapchatted, Facetimed our way through our days. Self-isolation taught us a lot — mostly about ourselves and our need for that  people connection.

The hope left in Pandora’s box turned our attention to our children and what would become of their turned  upside down worlds, as many schools will be closed for the rest of the term, and those that will open in September will be changed — possibly for years to come. That, my friends, may not be a bad thing. Many parents are looking to the Little House on the Prairie schoolhouse days as a guide to educating children. What children learn and how they learn it doesn’t have to be tethered to technology, to high speed internet. COVID-19 family time found parents and grandparents revisiting their own distant past with the resurrection of board games, puzzles, story telling, reading. Cooking, baking, music and art appreciation can all be enjoyed as a family, all the while being teaching tools.

Speaking of Little House on the Prairie, I learned that a storyline from that series actually predicted what we are experiencing today. In 1975, Little House On The Prairie aired an episode called 'Plague', which sees Laura's father Charles Ingalls, played by Michael Landon, attempt to control a breakout of typhus in Walnut Grove, Minnesota.   Charles is left isolated as he doesn't want to spread  disease; he turns the local church into a hospital to look after those infected.  In a 1977 episode, ’Quarantine', the whole town goes into lockdown after there is an outbreak of mountain fever.  Earning power/bartering came to a  standstill.

Today, we have different ways of earning an income, of providing for our family, but all of that came to a screeching halt and we were actually thrust into a pared down life, a simpler life. I suspect there will be many who say they’re enjoying the slower pace in spite of the impact not working is taking on their bank accounts. There will be so many who are not financially equipped to function without a sustained source of income -  enough to cover ‘necessities of life’  would be the ideal for the disenfranchised and struggling.

A universal basic income, even in the short term will brighten the light on hope, so that people can make new plans, or tweak the old ones. While our federal and provincial governments strategize, we all know one thing   — how we educate children could benefit from the ‘old ways’ more than we realize.

Carla MacInnis Rockwell is a freelance writer and disability rights advocate living outside Fredericton, NB with her geriatric Australian silky terrier and a rambunctious Maltese. She can be reached via email at carmacrockwell@xplornt.ca

The COVID-19 pandemic blew the lid off Pandora’s box

The COVID-19 pandemic is not going away any time soon so people need to accept this new reality if we are to overcome and get on with things. The co-operation of every single one of us is critical to that end.

What the pandemic has done is blow the lid off Pandora’s box with evidence of all manner of inequalities spilling out; front and center are the deficiencies in the lives of our children — they are our future, right? Why are we not doing more to ensure that they get the future they deserve — the kind the ‘haves’ don’t worry about too much because they’re already on track to a life that won’t experience a lot of worry about where the next meal is coming from, can Mom pay the rent this month? or will Dad still have a job in the fall?  Children in financial crisis, because their family lives on the edge day in and day out, worry about things young people should not have worry about.

My brain is boggled. Yes, it is! I just cannot understand how so many people are stuck on the notion that a universal basic income is  tantamount to paying people to do nothing. How very wrong they are.  Frankly,  it’s an insult to those who, very often through circumstances out of their control, have lived on the financial edge for years; for decades. You’ve heard the  statement — most people don’t have $400 to cover an emergency.

The single mother working two minimum wage jobs trying to keep a roof over her head and food on the table for herself and 4 kids is the one working for nothing, if we define working primarily in dollars and cents. Stop and think  about that. After all the costs of necessities of life are met there is very little left over for even one of the things most of us take for granted. Her 4 children are missing out on lots of experiences and tools that could enhance the quality of, for example, their learning life. How many children in this province do not have access to the internet let alone a computer, laptop or tablet? The call for organizing distance learning so children can keep up during the COVID-19 pandemic effectively shuts out huge chunks of our population - not just in this province, but across the country. 

We’re too quick to make the bold statement that  women (and men) who don’t work outside the home to earn money are not working, are lay-abouts, are milking the system, are abusing resources that they  don’t deserve to access. That self-entitled attitude espoused by those who already ‘have’ is insulting on so many levels. It’s got to change if we have any hope of coming out the other side of this hellish nightmare with our souls and sanity intact. All of us are in this together. Let’s not forget that now, and let’s not forget it when some semblance of normal starts to return to our world.

Our  current social assistance programs essentially put recipients into a forced/government state of poverty out  of which there seems to be no climbing. There’s no incentive to rise above when even basic needs are not met on a consistent basis, with the underpinnings of stress and fear driving every move.  No way to live, it’s not surprising that people living in poverty are sick, physically, emotionally and spiritually.

During the weeks of  being tossed and tumbled in the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, there have been lots of kitchen table discussions about guaranteed basic income also known as universal basic income. More and more people are coming to the conclusion that it may be the most efficient/effective way to assist those who are trapped in poverty and living on the fringes. Fortifying their financial base will improve health and wellness which will reduce stress on the health care system. 

Based on a 2018 study, providing a nationwide safety net for low-income Canadians in the form of a guaranteed basic income would cost roughly $43 billion a year, a report from Parliament’s fiscal watchdog suggested.  “The guaranteed income for disability would range between $3.2 billion and $3.5 billion.”

The school closures across the country  very clearly illustrates huge gaps between the haves and have nots as breakfast programs, school lunch programs, after school programs, designed to offer relief to families of limited means, were stopped. As best as they could corporations, local businesses and community groups came together to ensure that children didn’t go hungry, while they, too, are struggling to make family and business ends meet. Some will not be successful. That’s the reality of what COVID-19 has  done to our world, our lives, our sense of self.

In the coming weeks, perhaps representatives of the various branches of government will do the math on universal basic income and say YES to success.

Carla MacInnis Rockwell is a freelance writer and disability rights advocate living outside Fredericton, NB with her geriatric Australian silky terrier and a rambunctious Maltese. She can be reached via email at carmacrockwell@xplornet.ca