Just say, “Thank you.”
Say, “Thank you” to our doctors, nurses, EMTs, scientists, x-ray technicians, phlebotomists, janitors, launderers, and phone operators for putting themselves at risk to care for us not just during pandemics but in lifelong service.
Say, “Thank you” to our universe for rain, sunshine, soil, and microorganisms, to the farmers who grow our food, the laborers who pick it, the truckers who transport it, the workers who stock it, and the cashiers who sell it so that we may thrive.
Say, “Thank you” to our digital wizards who write code, develop programs, build computers and disseminate information at warp speed and connect us globally as if we were in the same room. Say, “Thank you” for simplifying the math and algorithms so that even an 85-year-old can send a text, get a picture in a nanosecond, and communicate from isolation.
Say, “Thank you” to our engineers and workers who provide us with clean water, paved streets, electricity for our lights, our internet, our refrigerators, freezers, washers, and dryers. Thank you to our sanitation workers and sewage systems for keeping us healthy.
Say, “Thank you” to our artists, musicians, singers, writers, dancers, weavers, photographers, filmmakers, comedians, actors, painters and athletes, who excite and soothe our hearts and feed our souls.
Thank you to our teachers and educators and therapists and spiritual leaders and guides who activate our brains, teach us to read, provoke our thoughts, inspire genius, creativity, and solution-finding.
Thank you to our engineers, architects, factory workers, and construction workers who design, plan, fabricate and build our dwellings so that we may rest safely.
Thank you to our bankers and financial advisors and all of those who are involved in our currency and global connectedness so that we may engage in commerce and exchange and share in the world’s rich abundance.
Say, “Thank You” to everyone in your family and circle of friends, regardless of grievances, because they are in your sphere.
Get ready now… big gulp…
Yes let’s even say “Thank you” to this virus and the politicians and the media and big pharma and industry and everyone else you want to blame, because what’s needed at this moment is cooperation.
Let’s thank this virus for exponentially accelerating our creative genius, our global interdependency and collective cooperation for finding solutions. Say, “Thank you,” for the badly needed breath the world has paused to take, for the cocooning of families, for the increased longing to connect, for the halting of excessive pollution and reckless use of precious resources. Say, “thank you” for the awakening of our deepest values, priorities, and needs for change.
So… less talk. Just two words.
What’s my plan?
I’ll say, “THANK YOU” to every person I “come in contact with” for no apparent reason at all.
And for every day of my quarantine, I’ll go through the alphabet of the world’s languages and learn to say “THANK YOU.” Starting with A: for Afrikaans, where 7.2 million South Africans speak: “Dankie.”