Is it possible to find a positive in a pandemic?

[kentuck]

Children that have been born in this millennium are seeing the world as they have never seen it. They never knew it was possible. Blue skies. Snow on distant mountains. Clear water in the canals of Venice, with fish. More bees and butterflies. Better air to breathe.

All is not lost.

[Marrah_Goodman]

1. Family time

My bfs son has an 18 month old and he works long, long hours as a college coach. This pandemic has given him a real opportunity to form a tight bond with her.

[kentuck]

5. +100

For better or worse, families are getting to know each other a lot more.

[Marrah_Goodman]

11. This is true!

You can tell how much this little girl is loving having her dad home playing with her. She even copies him as he works out!

I am staying at my bfs house during the pandemic. I decided to stay down in the in-law apartment so they we wouldn't be on top of each other 24/7 and drive each other nuts. It's working out pretty well. I miss my kids, but we facetime, so it's almost like being there.

[Dem2]

9. Or the opposite

My dad died Feb 23rd. I haven't been able to see my mom or any of my family since a week after that.

Not only has it been a strange grieving process, my mom is all alone :/

[Marrah_Goodman]

12. This is also true

I miss my folks a ton. The neighbors in their retirement community caught it and he died, alone in the hospital. She survived. So sad.

[malaise]

13. Damn that is hard

The only redeeming thing about this horrific virus is that Don the criminally negligent Con will be history shortly.

[ChazII]

14. My son passed

March 6 and it is a strange grieving process. I was lucky in that before the shelter in place or keep your distance came into play I had those few days - 72 hours in which friends came by and gave me hugs and brought gift cards to a couple local restaurants. Like your mom I am alone. Sending prayers for you and your mom.

[Dem2]

16. Thank you

Be well yourself.

[DonCoquixote]

2. yes, but NO

We as humans have found a way to make positives out of negatives. It enables us to survive, and indeed may be what is unique about us. However, as much as we need clean air and water, the death of millions should NEVER be celebrated, because sure enough, someone will get the bright idea of trying to repeat this, be it a government, corporation or simple terrorist. We cannot give them any room to become heroes, be it in the name of jesus Christ or Mother Earth.

[empedocles]

3. A silver lining, by November, if we can get a landslide, like FDR had . . .

[Perhaps even, the Robber Barrons may not again escape from treason charges]

[Claustrum]

4. People have more time at home and spend more time with family

I know some leads to divorces but I bet more find the time to spend and speak to their children/parents valuable, talk about things they never discuss before.

[Alex4Martinez]

6. This question is coming up more and more among respected friends.

My sense is that outcomes will be mixed, many good and many not so good.

Many will embrace this as an opportunity to transform how we live and work while others will fight vigorously to "get back to normal", and normal was, actually, pretty bad.

Traffic congestion, stress, unsustainable patterns of consumption and continued overpopulation, none good and all impacted in this moment.

We will learn, some, but we will also revert to old bad habits and new pandemics will come along, probably with greater frequency.

I'm glad that we are demonstrating great resilience and flexibility, and I'm more encouraged than discouraged.

Might we keep some of the emergency health care we are providing, might stimulus checks open the door to universal basic income programs?

I would like to see us halve the military budget and double or triple top marginal tax rates, then raise the minimum wage and go to a 32 hour work week, thus creating as many jobs as we have lost.

Stuff like that there fills my little mind.

[lapfog_1]

7. A co-worker and I were just speculating

that this could be the "new norm".

For many of those who can, work from home all the time.

local travel to local restaurants and bars and grocery stores and shopping.

But no more commute to the office. Save the companies a boat load on office parks and energy. save a lot of gasoline. Freeways become less congested, mass transit less crowded.

Let the wilderness start to heal the planet.

[Jamastiene]

8. Trump's tongue might be digging his own political grave.

We can hope, at least, that he has finally fucked up so much that we can get a Democratic president back in office and Trump gone. That is hopeful.

The entire world has not gone batshit. The rest of the countries pity America because of Trump. So, while America is a hotbed of people off their damn rockers protesting being told to chill out at home for a while, the rest of the world has stayed sane. That is reassuring.

Musicians are making videos for us for free online. That's great, especially since one of my top three (tied) most favorites has put up multiple videos. I'm enjoying that anyhow.

There are many positives to find. If we could just get rid of Trump, the whole world can possibly come back from this and begin to heal and prosper and be free and have a new lease on life.

[lame54]

10. Clean air

[NRaleighLiberal]

15. maybe personally, yes. But those of us who are empathetic, or

lose loved ones, or observe the mind-bending stupidity, ignorance and more...no one simple answer to your question.

[ucrdem]

17. It's pretty amazing isn't it.

Oil at minus 40 bucks a barrel for instance, and is it just me or did April seem a lot colder than it has been the last few years? It's hot now but in recent years I've been able to turn the heater pilot off on or before March 17. Not this year.

In other words we might be learning that global warming is not so irreversible.

But that is a sliver lining in the midst of horrible and unnecessary suffering.

[Totally Tunsie]

18. Quiet streets.

The only other time I remember it this quiet was when gas was over $4/gal.