It’s all about connection. Why do bloggers blog, journalists write columns, novelists share stories? It is an exercise in expression to be sure, but without connection it can be an empty exercise. We need one another. Why is it that tragedy often has to occur before we remember this? To engender kindness, caring gestures, thoughts of others? It has always been.

As a people are we getting more selfish, introverted, myopic? I hope not – I think our busy-ness can get in the way of our clarity – hard to see past.

I am enamored with healthcare workers – particularly those on the front lines putting their patients’ health requirements over (possibly) their own. At its best it is a noble profession, a true calling of selflessness, caring, giving.

I find myself asking what I can do to help my community cope with Covid-19. My age puts me at risk, I am anything but a daredevil, but I want to help. Perhaps writing, reaching out, starting a conversation that I am certain I am not alone in thinking, is my way of doing that.

Clearing the cobwebs. I have been on a long writing hiatus, this is not new for me. I can be the ‘need to get hit by a Mack truck’ type. I can go decades, until something big inspires me, almost insisting upon my involvement, a push too massive to ignore.

Writing has played a large and important role in my life. It has sheltered me, scorched me, loved me, smacked me. It has clarified me, embraced me, filled and emptied me. Writing may not be your tool but I’m certain we all have procured ways in which to share ourselves. It is our human need, our human way.

And perhaps that is the point. Our connection. While respecting the challenges of our many differences we also must celebrate the humanity that makes us the same. Because it’s ever more necessary in times of crisis, because if we aren’t here for each other what are we here for?

We are in a healthcare emergency. I want to write about the loneliness, the fear, the social distancing manner in which we now connect, the uncertainty. I write because I’m having a hard time synthesizing the bad news with what once was my life. I also write to connect, reach out, hope someone takes the time to read and respond and share their experience. I thank you for that.

As CBS keeps annoyingly but truthfully insisting – “We are all in this together.” And let me add, we will get out of this together as well. Stay safe.