The Countdown Continues: Day 20 - Day 12 of Dallas County Shelter in Place

This is the 4th Saturday that has gone by since I left my gig at Wal-Mart in Bentonville with orders to stay home. For three weeks the entire Technology Center I was working at has been working from their homes all over the country.  And the staff who actually live in Bentonville have also been working from their homes.  It has gone remarkably smooth.  The technology has stood up just fine.  There appear to be plenty of machine resources.  True productivity has been a curve I imagine.  Many people were not used to working from home, so they probably had to get in "the groove" and figure out how to make it work with Pets, Children, Spouses, Boredom, Uncomfortable Offices, etc.

This was a hard week I think for many.  While my friends started out OK - it did not stay OK.  Many were terminated, furloughed, hours cut, or pay cut this week.  The length of time their businesses were closed increased.  I am hoping that the "Cares Act" which is a portion of the Stimulus Package gets some of them "back to work" virtually as small businesses take advantage of the free money to keep people on the payroll.

I worry, like every other American with a conscience,  about whether unemployment benefits can sustain people for long enough.  Will our system hold up?  How is this going to be paid for when this is over?  But for now, those worries have to be put aside, and we have to figure out the simple question of how we will choose to help our friends and family and neighbors survive this crisis.

The action of helping becomes more challenging since we are quarantined.  It is hard to tell how someone "really is" when we cannot look them in the eye or see their face.  A text message can be misinterpreted - we can think someone is in dire straits when they just were needing to clean up cat puke and had no time to answer us.  We can think things are worse than they really are, we can be led to believe that things are better than they really are.  Phone calls are a little better - but same problems arise there.

Sometimes, I think we just have to go with our guts and start "doing".  If I have reason to believe that you might be struggling, and that is based on some pretty strong facts, then perhaps it is not the best avenue to keep asking you if you need something.  People tend to be very proud, and not want to reach out for help.  It is a very hard thing to say "Hey, I could really use some help right now".  And it does not matter what kind of help that might be.  So maybe we can help those we know and love pro-actively.  Make a call, send a letter, buy some groceries, whatever way that we CAN contribute to making someone's life more positive - we should just DO. 

     DO because we love them.  
        DO because we truly care.  
           DO because we miss seeing them.
              DO because we want them to know they are important.  
                 DO because we are blessed and want to pay it forward.  
                    DO - just to DO!

Because with every bit of ACTION we make a difference.