Looking for a Bright Side

Image credit: Douglas Bittinger

Despite all the tragedy, pain and uncertainty that the world is experiencing at the moment, we’ve been enjoying some positives, too. Call me the eternal, albeit cautious, optimist but when everything seems down, it’s important to find a few ‘ups’. Here’s my list … what can you add to it?

1. Less traffic, less pollution, better air quality

The usual traffic gridlocks in the morning and afternoons have virtually disappeared in Las Vegas. We don’t drive much, mostly to the store and back. We haven’t filled Blue’s diesel tank in weeks. We can see the mountains so much more clearly now. Mt. Charleston, still snow-capped, is usually clothed in haze and smog, but now stands out clear and majestic as a backdrop to the city. There’s a documented major decrease in pollution and much cleaner air to breathe.

2. Many people are showing their very best sides

Examples of generosity, helping, caring and a genuine concern for others abound. People want to help people even in little ways. Midst all the struggles, we see signs of human kindness everywhere and, like Covid-19, it’s contagious, but in a good way.

3. The golf course is closed.

Closer to home, our local golf course is closed and we can walk any time we want without incurring the wrath of the golfers. Granted the golf course isn’t happy and neither are the would-be golfers. This is a bright side for ‘us’ and other walkers only, but hey, it’s still a positive for us. That said, the golf course has posted lots of ‘no trespassing- private property’ signs due to liability issues. We’ve ignored them so far, scoff-laws that we are. The high 90F temps, however, have curtailed walking any time after about 8am, so we’re back to the early morning sched anyway.

Quick update: Since writing this blog, our golf course has reopened. I’m okay to walk early and it’s good to see some sense of normalcy return as the golfers hit the links. We did, however, enjoy it while it lasted.

4. More frequent communication and ‘reaching out’ between folks.

We’re not big fans of FaceTime… people always look goofy when they’re FaceTiming... but we have been using it lately for chats with family. I’ve reached out via emails and texts and phone calls to contact friends and family to insure they’re doing okay. I’ve been sending cards and notes to folks that I usually only make contact with at the holidays. We check on our older friends more frequently to see how they’re faring and let them know we’re thinking of them. We’re not alone, by any stretch. We’re receiving calls and texts as frequently as we’re sending them and it’s wonderful.

5. More family time because everyone has more time.

This is just an assumption on my part because living with David and his two sibs is nothing new for us. We spend as much time together now as we usually do… not much has changed in that department. I would imagine, however, that couples that usually head off to work every day and send their kids off to school and/or daycare are experiencing lots of family time. Once in the groove of a new daily routine, it might be hard to revert to the old routine… or not.

6. Sheltering in place is budget friendly.

Even if we weren’t making a concerted effort to reduce our monthly expenses, we’ve been saving money. We have lower fuel costs because we’re driving less. We’re not in Portugal walking the Camino as planned nor doing anything else exciting. Hence, there are no travel costs and in fact, we received a refund from American Airlines on our previously purchased tickets. Though we’re not big ‘entertainment’ spenders, we do enjoy heading out to the movies a couple of times a month or enjoying a local concert or baseball game once in awhile… not lately. There’s no spontaneous ‘let’s go out to dinner’ nights or ‘how about a quick bite to eat at ...’. It’s breakfast, lunch and dinner at Chez Lynn. We ordered pick-up and home delivery a couple of times, but it’s always anticlimactic… it’s the styrofoam containers, I think. All in all, we’re spending less… and really not enjoying it.

7. More time to do all those things you’ve always wanted to do.

In theory, everyone has more time to do things they’ve always wanted to do except what many folks have always wanted to do doesn’t involve staying home and ‘sheltering in place’. Though I imagine many are not taking advantage of their newly found free time and are frittering it away, others are making good use of their imposed incarceration time. David, for instance, is making great progress on Blue’s upfit. I’ve been continuing my Portuguese language lessons, writing, reading and participating in News Literacy webinars, a most relevant topic which I’ll share in a future blog. A negative here, however, is we’re also spending much too much time on our butts in front of the computer and we’re watching way more television and movies than we’ve done in the past 20+ years.

8. Time to reflect on how lucky we are.

No one in our immediate family is ill. One cousin who did contract Covid-19 and was hospitalized has recovered. Unlike some unfortunate others, we have a roof over our heads, enough to eat and a strong family support system. For all this and so much more, we are grateful.

Okay, that’s my take on the ups. I’m sure there are many more. It’s easy to be negative and rant about the downs, but finding some good in the situation might help us all to cope better in an otherwise unprecedented, indisputably sad situation. Let’s have your input.