So many things have become clear due to so much of the world being put on “pause.”

Many of these are good things. The city I am in, which is usually frenetic, is quiet. There is very little traffic. No noise. The air is clean, much less coughing. The few people on the street are wearing masks and most of the wave with a friendly acknowledgment that we are doing this for each other.

My children are working at home while also trying to keep their own young children occupied and active. A lot of their days seem to be full of chaos and conflicting demands. Yet, it has brought the families together. They have mostly learned routines and a greater respect for each other. Working from home means saving one to two hours a day not dealing with the commute. It means quiet evenings as all the Zoom work is over. My nine year-old granddaughter has become an wiz on all of the electronic platforms. She has mastered Zoom, FaceTime, and many ways of communicating with her friends. She has an email account that has helped her develop great writing skills, with the addition of emojis. All of my younger grandchildren are learning more from doing Lego than anything they are getting from school.

But, I can’t help feeling anxiety and grief because of the huge gap in safety and opportunity that this virus has brought. Those of us who are older and more vulnerable, but have the resources, now depend on those who are younger and more desperate to bring us food, drive the buses, clean the hospitals, and do all the other tasks that cannot wait. It is also clear that so many people do not have the resources to live at a social distance and still have food, shelter and stay healthy.

While it is uplifting to see that so many people really are doing so much to help others, to encourage health and safety, and to honor those who are doing the good work, it is also discouraging and infuriating to see how much greed, selfishness and callousness still exists in our society.

My hope is that this virus can really serve as a tipping point and bring out the Better Angels of our Nature.

We shall see.