Love In the Time of COVID-19

Shireen Sakizadeh McConnell

Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ 1985 novel, Love In the Time of Cholera, explores themes of enduring love, love as an illness, aging, and death. After years of being kept apart by familial and societal expectations, characters Fermina and Florentino find themselves finally able to express their love for each other. Plot twist: they’re alone, exiled on a ship with the cholera flag raised and no port will allow them to dock. Talk about a complicated happy ending in extreme social distancing.

These are strange times. While many of us have been practicing social distancing for years (shoutout to my introverts), the current COVID-19 pandemic has ensured that this will become our new standard practice for the time being. Many businesses and schools have decided either to close or to allow staff and students to work remotely from home. Events have been canceled. Families are choosing to avoid leaving home unless necessary. Some of us may follow Fermina and Florentino’s lead and use this time to seal the deal with someone we’ve secretly been in love with our entire lives. For the rest of us, we might be using this time to simplify our lives and strengthen our connections with family and friends.

There is no doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic will change the way we function as a society in the short term. My prediction is that this experience will influence what we value and where we invest our time for the foreseeable future. It may also raise the veil on how deeply reliant we are on specific industries and populations of workers who do not have the luxury of working from home. What I’m realizing is that we are only as strong as our most vulnerable members of society. This is always true, but in ways that are more obvious when we are dealing with a highly communicable disease with a long incubation period. I’m hearing conversations acknowledging these raw truths regardless of political identity. This has led to another realization: there is nothing like a pandemic to bring the truly important things into focus. Viruses don’t care about political leanings. The response to this emergency calls for an immediate, unified response from government officials, community leaders, and everyday citizens.

I’ve observed an outpouring of support for the healthcare workers who are bravely showing up to work each day. I’ve witnessed people checking in on their elderly neighbors who don’t have family nearby. I’ve watched friends communicate that they are willing to drop off supplies for immunocompromised individuals. I’ve always believed that all human beings are intrinsically good. We’re seeing that in practice right now – except with the toilet paper hoarders, but we will deal with them when this is all behind us. Americans are demonstrating that we are capable of rising above the noise and putting aside our differences to act with compassion and love.

We are only at the beginning of this journey. It’s going to require that each of us make sacrifices and significant changes to our lives. It will also require that we prioritize what’s truly important in life: family, friends, and community. Take care of each other. Look out for each other. Love each other. Wash your hands.