When all is said and done, what will be the most important lesson to be learned from COVID-19? Will the most important thing be the importance of masks? What about social distancing, not shaking hands, and judging someone when you can’t see their face? Or maybe the most important thing will be listening to the “experts” blindly, even when they change their minds but the science stays the same?
In the 2003 movie “Secondhand Lions” the main character, Walter, is a boy quickly becoming a young man. He gets a preview of a (much longer) coming-of-age speech from Hub, his great uncle. It comes when Walter is having a bit of a crisis. He’s been told a huge story, but the evidence seems conflicting. This leaves Walter unsure of what to believe. (Pretend that the story was about a disease. Sound like a familiar situation?)
If you haven’t seen the clip, you owe it to yourself to see it. (Heck, watch the whole movie. It’s absolutely fantastic.) Fundamentally, the speech (or at least the part we hear) says that sometimes you have to choose what you will believe, whether there is any evidence or not. You choose these things because you choose to believe that beauty, love, and goodness are the most important things to believe.
So when it comes to COVID-19, then, what do we choose to believe? We believe it’s important to hug the ones you love. A hand on the shoulder while someone cries is better than Zoom. You shouldn’t go too long without sharing your smile with the world. Strangers are worth meeting and talking to. And the most important lesson about COVID-19? Surely it will be that we can never again allow a disease to make us forget how to recognize the humanity in each other and have normal contact.