Keeping Perspective in a Changing World

Sculpture of girl's face evoking past and present, familiar and unfamiliar. Mark Manders, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN This week, the world surpassed 33 million cases of COVID-19 and 1 million deaths, with 7 million cases and 205,000 deaths in the United States. With just over 4 percent of the world’s population, the U.S has almost 21 percent of the global cases of COVID-19. How do we make sense of all these numbers? One million deaths are hard to comprehend and impossible to relate to, unless, I imagine, you’ve been on the frontline caring for thousands who take their last breath on your shift. As a data person and researcher, I’ve been watching the [...]

2020-10-01T18:40:19-04:00September 30th, 2020|Categories: COVID-19, Resilience|Tags: , , , , |

Getting Through the COVID-19 Pandemic: Lessons from Our Ancestors

Sand sculpture of Bubonic plague. Bouke Atema. istock.com How do we get through the COVID-19 pandemic? Lately, I’ve been compelled to read stories about how others have survived something. The circumstances are less important to me than how they got through—how they responded to and managed unexpected and uncontrollable adversity. Did survivors of other pandemics, wars, or adverse childhood experiences rise to the occasion with strength and resilience to do what needed to be done, or did they retreat to a familiar comfort zone to calm their fears and anxieties or rely on others to help them get through? How did they deal with the chaos and uncertainty? Fear is a human condition, and [...]

2020-08-29T23:02:45-04:00August 29th, 2020|Categories: COVID-19, Resilience, Stress, Survival|Tags: , , , , |
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