Talk about empathy!!!!

Covid-19 Corona Virus has accomplished in three months what spiritual leaders and governments have sought for centuries: bond communities into common connections, heighten mindfulness, encourage empathy.

So here we sit with extra boxes of pasta in our bravado little bubbles, passing along the latest information, and urgent thoughts and support for one another. Have you had the emails from worried kids with admonitions and pleas to cancel trips and take care? Have your conversations included  — if not begun with — “Corona”? Since December 2019, nearly five million searches, inclusion in every newscast all day long, and near daily updates from authorities have dramatically increased the email exchanges among loved ones (I’m guessing). But it’s human nature to connect to others in time of need; isolation is akin to smoking 15 cigarettes a day (I’m not guessing – Brigham Young University study).

As nursing and assisted living homes close their doors this week to lock out the killer contagion, it could also open the window to alternative communication! Grand-kids should pick up their phones to make a real voice-to-voice call. Send an old-fashioned funny greeting card.  Print off that photo before uploading it, and send it to someone who is feeling more lonely and scared than ever. Every retirement and nursing home,  assisted living facility and homeless shelter should have tablet computers as available as soup! And some easy way to attract and show elders how easy it is to see their hometown paper or answers to their most random question. There are good simple training programs, such as (and I’m clearly biased) the free self-guided app Easy Tablet Help for Seniors

But think how much you, yourself, are watching, using, checking, sending —  online —  in this crisis. Isn’t it heartbreaking to imagine the isolation spreading exponentially among the more confined?

Here’s to short-lived problems, long-lived  family, and well-lived lives!!!!

Josie Fletcher at Surrey Senior Center sending her first text to her loving granddaughter

2019–20 coronavirus pandemic by country and territory
Territory	Cases	Deaths	Recoveries	Ref.
China (mainla	80,790	3,158	61,611	[1]
Italy	12,462	827	1,045	[1]
Iran	9,000	354	2,959	[1]
South Korea	7,755	61	288	[2]
France[c]	2,281	48	12	[1]
Spain	2,222	49	183	[3]
Germany	1,908	3	25	[1]
United States (including Grand Princess)	1,109	31	15	[4]
Diamond Princess[d]	696	7	357	[1]
Switzerland	652	4	3	[1]
Japan	639	15	118	[1]
Norway	570	0	1	[1]
Netherlands	503	5	0	[1]
Sweden	497	1	1	[1][5]
United Kingdom[e]	460	8	19	[1][6][7]
Denmark[f]	444	0	2	[8]
Belgium	314	3	1	[1][9]
Qatar	262	0	0	[1]
Austria	246	0	4	[1]
Bahrain	195	0	35	[10]
Singapore	178	0	96	[1]
Malaysia	149	0	26	[1]
Australia	127	3	24	[1]
Hong Kong	126	3	60	[1]
Canada	99	1	9	[1]
Greece	99	0	0	[11]
Iceland	85	0	1	[1]
Israel	79	0	4	[1]
Czech Republic	81	0	0	[12]
United Arab Emirates	74	0	17	[1]
Kuwait	72	0	2	[1]
Iraq	71	7	15	[1]
San Marino	66	3	0	[13]
India	62	0	4	[1]
Lebanon	61	2	1	[1]
Egypt (including MS River Anuket)	60	1	27	[1]
Thailand	59	1	34	[1]
Finland	59	0	1	[1]
Portugal	59	0	0	[14]
Slovenia	57	0	0	[15]
Philippines	49	1	2	[1]
Taiwan	48	1	17	[1]
Romania	39	0	6	[1]
Vietnam	38	0	16	[1]
Brazil	35	0	0	[1]
Ireland	34	1	0	[1]
Indonesia	34	1	2	[1]
Poland	31	0	0	[16]
Palestine	30	0	0	[1]
Georgia	24	0	0	[1]
Chile	23	0	0	[1]
Saudi Arabia	21	0	1	[1]
Algeria	20	0	0	[1]
Russia	20	0	3	[1]
Argentina	19	1	0	[1]
Pakistan	19	0	1	[17]
Oman	18	0	9	[1]
Ecuador	17	0	0	[1]
Croatia	16	0	0	[1]
Estonia	16	0	0	[18]
Costa Rica	13	0	0	[1]
Hungary	13	0	0	[1]
South Africa	13	0	0	[1][19]
Albania	12	1	0	[1]
Serbia	12	0	0	[1]
Azerbaijan	11	0	0	[1]
Brunei	11	0	0	[1]
Peru	11	0	0	[1]
Slovakia	10	0	0	[1]
Latvia	10	0	1	[1]
Macau	10	0	10	[1]
Colombia	9	0	0	[20]
Belarus	12	0	3	[1][21]
Panama	8	1	0	[22][23]
Maldives	8	0	0	[1]
Mexico	8	0	4	[1]
Afghanistan	7	0	0	[1]
Bosnia and Herzegovina	7	0	0	[1]
Luxembourg	7	0	0	[1]
North Macedonia	7	0	0	[1]
Tunisia	7	0	0	[1]
Bulgaria	6	1	0	[1]
Cyprus	6	0	0	[1]
Malta	6	0	0	[1]
Morocco	6	1	0	[1]
Dominican Republic	5	0	0	[1]
New Zealand	5	0	0	[1]
Paraguay	5	0	0	[1]
Senegal	4	0	1	[1]
Bangladesh	3	0	0	[1]
Lithuania	3	0	0	[1]
Moldova	3	0	0	[1]
Cambodia	3	0	1	[1]
Bolivia	2	0	0	[1]
Burkina Faso	2	0	0	[1]
Cameroon	2	0	0	[1]
Honduras	2	0	0	[24]
Nigeria	2	0	0	[1]
Sri Lanka	2	0	1	[1]
Andorra	1	0	0	[1]
Armenia	1	0	0	[1]
Bhutan	1	0	0	[1]
DR Congo	1	0	0	[25]
Guernsey	1	0	0	[26]
Ivory Coast	1	0	0	[27]
Jamaica	1	0	0	[28]
Jersey	1	0	0	[29]
Jordan	1	0	0	[1]
Liechtenstein	1	0	0	[1]
Monaco	1	0	0	[1]
Mongolia	1	0	0	[1]
Togo	1	0	0	[1]
Turkey	1	0	0	[30]
Ukraine	1	0	0	[1]
Vatican City	1	0	0	[1]
Nepal	1	0	1	[1]
Total territories (118)[4]	125,060	4,585	67,050	[1]

Thanks to the wonderful Wikipedia- to which we should all send contributions.