Where a virus rewrites my reality

Sobering dashboard
London, ON
March 2020
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Not a lot of time to shoot or write. #COVID19 / #coronavirus has rather quickly wiped away everything I had on the go and redefined my priorities for, oh, the next kabillion centons.

I'm not complaining. I'm healthy, working in a job I love surrounded by brilliant people who feel the same way. As the global crisis around the pandemic has deepened, I've been privileged to be among a group rising to the challenge. It's pretty awe-inspiring to watch so much professional capability literally pivot in a new direction, all in real-time. And to be part of the team striving to keep our clients, our members, ahead of the threat. It's a responsibility we all wear with pride.

Today may have been a long day - it's 8:44 p.m. and I'm just now leaving the office, laptop in my backpack because I'll be cranking copy on it all weekend - but it was a good one, a day I'll probably remember for a while.

And we have many more memorable days ahead. Hard? Frightening? Sure. But there's always someone else worse off.

To wit: Take a closer look at the display in the middle of my monitor-laden desk, It's got Johns Hopkins University's Coronavirus Resource Centre on it, a dashboard of sorts that aggregates infection and death rates, in near-real-time from around the world.

Every few minutes, I'd refresh it to ensure I was including the latest numbers in my work. And with every refresh, the number of deaths would march up, by 3 one time, 10 the next, always seemingly random, always upward - about 400 over the few hours I've been accessing the site.

It serves as a sobering reminder that real people's lives are being touched - and ended - by a virus we can't see. And a reminder to be thankful that we aren't included in those statistics. That we can still drop a laptop into our bags and head home to our families.

May we all find light amid the darkness. May we all navigate the next chapter with grace. I'll be over here, sharing snippets of the journey.

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