It happened very suddenly: one day I was cheerfully chatting with some of the women of my church while cooking potluck, and the next day I couldn’t speak a single word without being in excruciating pain. Little did I know it then, but I would spend the next 5 weeks in what we now suddenly call social distancing.
At first, I would not even leave the house because I was afraid that whatever sickness had taken possession of my voice could be passed to others. There was a 10-day stretch in which I didn’t even step outside my house because I knew that if I bumped into anyone, I would be too instinctively friendly not to speak the words of common courtesy: “hi,” “excuse me,” and “thank you” and spend the rest of the day in excruciating pain. The rest of me was healthy, though, especially once I had caught up on sleep. It was a truly bizarre and unprecedented situation for me. The entire world now finds itself in a truly bizarre and unprecedented situation. The world has begun social distancing in dramatic ways over the last few days. As I have watched this unfold (and dealt with the logistical nightmare of helping move my church’s services into the virtual realm), I have come to the stunning realization that because of my rare and bizarre illness, I am one of the few people with hard-won experience to share with others grappling with their new reality. Of course, the situations aren’t exactly the same. Some things about my illness were easier:
On the other hand, while the present emergency is undoubtedly frustrating and stressful, it does have its points. Some things about it that are actually easier than my sickness was are:
The two experiences have their differences, but a lot of the same skills transfer, and that’s what this is all about. Even for a raging extrovert like myself, social distancing isn’t the end of the world. It is possible not just to survive these strange times, but even thrive a little. Things are crazy, but meanwhile, life goes on!
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AuthorJillian Lutes is the youth pastor at West Covina Hills Seventh-day Adventist Church. Archives
May 2020
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