Covid-19 Isolation

America, and much of the world, are in the middle of the Covid-19 epidemic. With that has come orders for people to stay home. Over the last week, we have listened to newscasters interview people across the country who feel isolated, alone, bored, and even depressed. They are afraid of the idea that this stay-at-home order will continue indefinitely.

What many people are experiencing right now is nothing new for many disabled, immune compromised, or aged people. They spend most of their time alone while the world runs around them at a frantic pace. They sit idly watching out the window as others live their busy lives. For many, this order to shelter-in-place has no impact on them at all. Living a solitary life is what they do everyday.

I was a busy middle school teacher, who was surrounded by people all the time. Touching lives was what I did. But the first in a series of major surgeries changed all that. I went from working with hundreds of kids to seeing almost nobody, seemingly overnight. A major surgery every year only enhanced that isolation. This only heightened my awareness of so many in our world who experience the same circumstances.

Consider that many of our older population are simply being housed in nursing homes because families can’t figure out another way to take care of them. Those places can be depressing, because the people who live there are depressed. The more limited their mobility, the more they struggle to maintain a presence in society.

My wife and I once lived and worked near a large Cerebral Palsy home. We knew many of them from the church that was next door to the home. We made the decision that we wanted to invite them to our house for dinner. It took a lot of coordination, special vans, and a volunteer to help each of then with their meal. The house was packed with people, wheel chairs, and food. Those we invited continually reminded us that they had never been invited to someones house for dinner. Let that sink in. These disabled adults had never been invited to someone else’s house for dinner. Their joy was overwhelming because a group of people decided to go out of their way to transport them, feed them, and visit with them for one special night. Our volunteers began to discover the incredible minds trapped in those uncooperative bodies.

The critically ill, medically fragile, immune deficient, and people with many other conditions face isolation all of the time. Now that you are experiencing just a touch of what they live all of the time, consider making a difference in their lives after this crisis is over. Make the decision that you are going to include someone you know, but have overlooked for way too long. It may not be easy to do this, but your efforts will make a world of difference to those you include.