We all have a role to play.
Like many around the world, I’ve watched in horror as the Coronavirus (COVID-19) has ravaged cities and towns causing unimaginable pain to their citizens. People who are healthy one day are sometimes gone a week later.
Many were older with preexisting conditions, but so many were not! And no matter why they died, their families still grieve at the suddenness of the loss and the inability to help in the last days of their loved one’s life.
Nurses, doctors, other healthcare workers, just trying to help, also get sick.
First responders.
Police.
Ordinary folks manning cash registers in stores.
Bus drivers.
Construction workers.
Teachers.
Some die … just because they were helping others try to live. They put their own lives ahead of others’ because that’s what they do as professionals. As humans. As caretakers.
Again, like many, I have felt helpless facing this pandemic. I am just one person. I am not the right age to be in the trenches; I am not a medical person who is needed there anyway. I am not working an essential job. I have had trouble even watching TV since 99.9% of the coverage is about death, about misery, about statistics that show us how widespread and pervasive this disease is and will likely continue to be for months, if not years. About things I cannot affect or change!
I have felt helpless. Until tonight.
What changed for me?
Watching World News Tonight with David Muir helped me the other night when the reporter – I think it was Tom Llamas – said these words that suddenly made a difference:
Everyone has a role to play.
And I realized that on a global scale, one person is small. But in a town, a city, a village, a neighborhood – one person CAN make a difference. One person can be a huge factor in someone else’s life.
We can be the ones who stay home as ordered to keep any issues we may have from spreading to others.
We can be the friend who checks in on other friends to ensure they know they’re in our thoughts. That they’re cared for, cared about … loved.
We can be the friend who shares some boxes of pasta we have for someone who has so little. Jars of spaghetti sauce. Fresh fruit. Cereal. Whatever we might have a little more of than we need … that will help someone else eat right – or even eat at all.
If we’re already heading to the grocery store, we can check with others to see if there’s something they need, which will mean one or two fewer folks in the store at that time.
Even on social media, we can share stories of resilience, of hope, of others making a difference by their ideas, their work, their choices.
We can show that all is NOT lost, dark as these days have become. We can find purpose in what we do. We can show that there’s still light, that so many others still care, that they show it in their actions.
This simple sentence lifted me up more than I would have imagined.
We all have a role to play.
What will yours be?