Today was an uneventful day in a most unusual way. Here we all are going about our separate daily lives, and yet we’re all in the same situation: confined to our homes in a collective effort to ward off peril in the form of a pathogen. How strange and at once remarkable.
I was exchanging messages with friends in Switzerland on Monday morning. The Federal Council had announced tightening measures and further restricting public life in light of the «ausserordentliche Lage» (extraordinary situation). Just then my sister sends me breaking news that San Francisco and six other counties in the Bay Area, a combined population of 6.7 million compared to 8.5 million in Switzerland, issued a “shelter in place” order beginning at 12:01 a.m. on March 17, 2020 through April 7, 2020 (through at least April 19 in Switzerland).
Honestly, I’m not sure I’d even heard of the term “shelter in place” before yesterday. But I read the order and informed my family, in particular my elderly parents, of the specifics. On another note, though not entirely unrelated, Take Shelter is a great film about, well, just that.
And as we’re now taking shelter ourselves, I catch myself thinking and even saying out loud, “Wait, what?” Do you find yourself wondering too what this is all about? How is it that so much everyday life and business as usual worldwide is suddenly at a standstill? And all of it propelled by an invisible force that hardly a week ago was seemingly far off enough that the thought of a simultaneous global shutdown was unthinkable. Incredible, really.
But what’s also incredible is the solidarity to adhere to such unprecedented measures. It seems to me that – generally speaking and images from the empty streets of San Francisco to the Grand Boulevards of Paris speak for themselves – people are doing their part to help in the collective effort of mitigating a menace that, for its seeming farawayness, now is so close.
Wim Wender’s beautiful film Der Himmel über Berlin (Wings of Desire) came to mind as I was thinking about the day today. Perhaps its story about angels in Berlin, a densely populated city where people are isolated, conjured something about this moment in time but is also an uplifting anecdote to it. After all, it is a story about an angel, played by the Swiss legend Bruno Ganz, who falls in love with a lonely trapeze artist and chooses to become mortal so he can experience and discover human love.
As we enter a period of confinement from staying home and social distancing, it’s even more important to stay in touch. I sense my own curiosity and desire to reach out to family and friends, far and near, to hear how you are and what things are like where you are; from all of you here in California to our beloved Switzerland, Europe and beyond.
In such an unsettling and uncertain time, let’s take comfort in each other as we’re taking shelter. I invite you all to keep in touch by checking in and chiming in with your thoughts and experiences. Leave a comment, start a discussion, send me your thoughts or, if you like, send your story to share as its own post here. Until tomorrow, remember: Stay (Faraway, So Close!)