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By Jamie Etheridge
days it is necessary to look past the negative and focus on the good. Today is one of those days.
- Air quality in many cities around the globe has improved as a result of the pandemic and stay at home measures.
- There is more time to take naps. Scientific studies have shown that adults who take daytime naps once or twice a week live longer, are less prone to strokes and heart attacks and manage stress better.
- E-learning for kids at home has added a lot of stress on parents (and means more noise in the house, less quiet for naps!) but it also gives school-age children, especially older kids, a chance to grow more independent and to develop more skills involved with self-directed learning. Self-directed learning, time management and organizational skills are all part of executive functioning and are important for success in college.
- Across the world, communities are coming together to help each other, neighbors are getting to know neighbors, people's lives have slowed down and as a consequence there is more time for all of us to reconnect with our families, our friends and our communities (if at a safe social distance).
- We are learning to cook without onions, practicing creative and imaginative skills many of us didn't even know we had. Our breath will also smell better.
- Americans might eventually get fair access to healthcare as a result of the pandemic.
- We are reminded that humans are resilient. Societies are resilient. We can and will survive this pandemic.
- This pandemic is showing us that farmworkers, cleaners, grocery store stockers and clerks, doctors, nurses, policemen, lab technicians, street cleaners, teachers and moms are all essential to our society and we need to respect them more and pay them better.
- I am usually a cynic when it comes to human kindness but the pandemic has reminded me how many genuinely kind- and generous-hearted people there are in this world. Carrying this forward into the post-pandemic world, insha'Allah.
- No final exams in Ramadan or Eid!
