In this new COVID-19 pandemic world, I’m finding it hard to get away from screens and news feeds. There’s an onslaught of terrible news from everywhere. Globally we are all doing much of the same, mostly, which is (hopefully) staying at home.
But what happens when you aren’t home, or your home is split between two very different places? A woman and her family from Champaign are currently stuck in Iran. She and her family had tickets to return to the United States, but they were cancelled.
She recently wrote an essay and published it on Medium. Give it a read to a sense of what it’s like to live in Iran right now, where — spoliers — people are not hoarding toilet paper.
As things continue to get worse here, I’m going to carry this with me:
The coronavirus doesn’t distinguish between rich or poor, race or creed, or geography. We all rely on each other in this modern system we have built. By taking care of one another, we may be able to better weather this storm. And as I see it, working together is our best bet for survival and resilience.
Top image screenshot from Google Maps.