If I had a Heart as Big as a New York City Nurse

                In a previous life, I worked as a nurse and a nurse practitioner. I was a crappy nurse. I knew the textbook knowledge, but I could never seem to put together the knowledge in my head with the observations of the person in front of me. And I really lacked the sympathy, empathy, plain caring that makes an excellent nurse.

                So, when I’m listening to nurses and doctors working on the frontlines of the pandemic talk about their experiences, reading their posts on Facebook, seeing the pictures in the news, I find myself tearing up. I’m not an overly emotional person, but listening to the tired voices of these amazing people talk about working round the clock to try to save people, losing patients, and trying to comfort families that couldn’t be there when their loved ones died, I feel like I’m in the presence of human beings who have skills and compassion at a level that I can only imagine.

                In the face of their sacrifice and caring, listening to the protesters in Michigan whose protests blocked access to a hospital is disturbing. Don’t get me wrong, I believe protesting the things we think our government is doing wrong is a cornerstone of a democracy. But our demonstrations, our protests, should never make the work of these incredible health care workers harder. It should never make light of the incredible loss of life we are experiencing in this pandemic. It should never make the grief of those who have lost loved ones worse.

                Normal is gone. Yet, when we come out the other side of this world changing time we will have our work cut out for us to restore our democracy. We will have to address the income inequality and institutional racism that have been exposed during this pandemic. We will have to recognize that the people who kept our world going were not politicians or billionaires, but minimum wage workers working in grocery stores, nurses and doctors working double shifts to offer skilled compassionate care, teachers learning on the fly how to teach remotely. We will have to realize that we need a single payer health care system so that everyone can afford health care without going bankrupt.

                Before that though, right now, in the midst of the pandemic, what we need is compassion for others. We need to be more concerned about the needs of others, than our own wants and desires.