The End of May, 2020

Phase 1 opening started in New York this past week. It will be interesting to see what happens with the number of new cases of COVID-19. What will the government reaction be if we see a sharp rise in new cases? Can you keep shutting business down or should the smart approach be to let people decide for themselves? I am in favor of letting people decide for themselves how they want to deal with the virus. There isn’t much more we can do. The reality at the end of the day is simple. We succeeded in flattening the curve but the curve is simply that; flat. It is not at the bottom. The virus is still out there. Every day more is learned about COVID-19 andevery day is more confusing because the demographics of the people that are getting sick constantly change. 

Business successfully adapted and did so quickly. Schools did an unthinkable shift to remote learning. Some businesses may not recover from this. Some industries will look completely different and some will not survive. A part of me expected, in time, a return to normal. When a 14 day shut down to flatten the curve turned into an additional 30 days to flatten the curve, 45 days seemed like a very long time and then the shut down continued. Now we need to create a new normal if we want to go on with lives that are not locked behind closed doors and windows. We can take the lessons learned and look at ways to permanently include the changes we made in our work and in our personal lives. Some things are better than before. Some things need modifications. Some things were temporary - the government shutting us down and taking to the airwaves to give us daily updates, comforting in the very beginning, quickly lost their appeal as we lost our ability to control our lives. I hope the temporary goes away soon and doesn’t come back. 

I find myself looking forward again. There are many things that are still unknown. The biggest unknowns revolve around community. Dining out; car shows; charity fundraisers; school; museums; church; weddings; celebrations, etc. Can we find a change that feels as exciting as coming together in a large group does? That would be a game changer. 

As they say, back to the drawing board. 

A Blank Slate