Let us remember that in this time of the pandemic, when our leaders in Washington failing to take the actions necessary to keep us safe, it’s the grocery store employees, pharmacists, gas station attendants, mail carriers, first responders, delivery drivers, and anyone working in a hospital or medical staff are honest-to-goodness heroes right now.
Anyone who continues to leave their home to do the work that must be done.
Let us honor them any way we can.
For me, this has meant writing letters to the employees of the two grocery stores and the pharmacy where I have shopped over the past two days, thanking the employees for continuing to stock shelves, unload trucks, and assist customers in these uncertain times.
It has meant writing a letter to the librarians who are still working at our public library, creating a system by which they will collect the books that patrons request so that you can drive by and pick them up without ever exiting your car.
It has meant thanking every grocery store employee personally and from a very safe distance while shopping.
Yesterday, I was submitting medical bills to my insurance company’s claims department, but before sealing the envelope with the receipts and forms, I wrote short notes to each of the people who would be processing my claim, thanking them for the work they do and hoping they are safe and well.
If you can find a way to thank a nurse or a police officer or a delivery driver for their service, please do.
If you can find a way of letting a gas station attendant, a doctor, or the custodian who is keeping the hospital clean that they are heroes, please do.
We certainly have the time. And don’t wait to find it. Make it. These folks deserve all the gratitude that we can muster.
If you need some inspiration, this has been very helpful to me in recent days. It’s admittedly made my cry at times, but it also steels me with resolve and reminds me that as uncertain and frightening as the world is today, better days will come.
It’s almost as if Springsteen wrote this song for this exact moment in history.
