The Great Equalizer

There haven't been any times in American history where everyone is living the same life. People have always lived very disparate lives. Yes, they drove the same roads and lived in the same cities and by the same laws but how they experienced their lives was very different in most cases. There weren't nearly as many extravagances to separate yourself from your neighbor in previous centuries but some always had an advantage. You've always had the rich and the poor; those who are traveling around in horse drawn carriages with powdered wigs and those who are walking shoeless; the aristocrats and the commoners; those eating steak and drinking fine wines and those who are concerned about finding anything to eat.

There have been times, though, when all Americans have had to live and breath around an overwhelming challenge to the nation’s stability and future:

The Civil War certainly was felt by all Americans. It became the national focus for 4 years. It affected the lives of the rich AND the poor, the privileged and the none privileged. President Lincoln did allow the wealthy to pay a fee in order to avoid fighting for the Union but largely the whole country felt a tremendous interruption in their daily lives.

The Great Depression created massive unemployment and tremendous suffering across the country. This didn't restrict mobility and the rich (those who didn’t lose their fortune in the stock market) were still able to live like the rich. Those who went largely unaffected by the impact of the Depression went about their lives without interruption. Labor was very cheap as were goods and services.

WWII put Americans on the same page in many ways. Our country was hyper focused on one goal. 500,000 Americans lost their lives and many more had their young lives interrupted in order to fight the War. The country was hyper focused but there was no major restriction on normal social and business activities. John Wayne and many others continued to make movies; Glenn Miller continued performing his concerts and even the MLB said "play ball", albeit with a "rag tag" group of players. We knew that the only way to die was to be in Europe or the Pacific. We knew where the front line was.

9/11 captured the nation's attention in a profound and shocking way but, except for travel immediately after the attack there weren't many changes to our daily lives. The World Series took place just a few weeks later only a 30 minute subway ride away from where the Towers came down. The smoke hadn't even cleared and yet there was no dip in the sales of Frappucino's at Lower Manhattan Starbucks. People were able to gather in candlelight vigils to mourn the loss of lives and innocence. No one thought to cancel Thanksgiving or Christmas. On the contrary, we might have needed those traditions more than ever.

This---this viral pandemic is different. In many ways all Americans have never been closer to being in the "same boat" than we are right now. The tremendous gaps between the rich and the poor, the "have and the have nots", the mobile and the immobile, have temporarily been narrowed. No one is living their "best life" at this very moment. That’s an extraordinary realization. No one in the world is having a great day/week/month. Everyone is restricted. Everyone is apprehensive. No one is eating at their favorite restaurant. No one is skiing down the Alps and retiring to their private chateau to fine dining with friends and family. Even people whose loftiest goal on a day off is to drive an hour to the beach are finding that this basic pleasure has been restricted for an indeterminate amount of time. There are surely still a few who are eating steak and lobster and getting 2 hour spa like massages but the numbers are faint--for now. No one is sitting front row at an Ariana Grande concert right now (they are all canceled)...or attending a private party at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Las Vegas is dark and the streets are empty; not a single slot machine is moving. Disneyland, the “happiest place on earth” has been closed for over a week. Since it’s opening In 1955 Disneyland had only been closed one day (the day after JFK died). Not a Ferris wheel in the world is turning. All zoos across the world are closed with no opening in site. No matter how bad things got during our wars and national tragedies we always knew that “the show must go on”, and it did. Yes, this one is quite different; the shows are all closed and no one knows when they might open. We’ve entered a zone that, perhaps, only Rod Serling could host.

In a Cancer ward they don’t separate the wealthy and privileged patients from the ones who are struggling financially. Cancer doesn’t care about your bank account or your pedigree. The suffering and anxiety and risks are felt equally, or as close to equally as possible. In that way, a billionaire cancer patient can feel much in common with a cancer patient who is living in poverty. This experience that they both feel similarly brings them to an equal understanding. It connects these people who, up until the time of their cancer, were living very disparate lives. It reduces both of these people to their most fundamental selves.

Do you remember being in elementary school? At age 8 or 9, or 10 you are in school with other kids your age. You are almost certainly living fairly similar lives to your classmates at that age. Most of your time is spent in school with each other. You go home, you eat dinner and you might play an activity or watch TV. My sisters and I thought that going to McDonald's was a thrill when we were young. Our dreams were small: Mine was a Big Mac and fries with a coke. Everyone can afford that. That’s a dream that just about anyone can realize. I played in the local park with the other kids from my school on the weekends. I didn't know or care how much money their parents had. We all dressed similarly. There was nothing we were going to wear to school that would allow us to express affluence or extravagance. We wore cheap tennis shoes and corduroy pants and we mostly combed our hair the same way. We were equals. Things changed just a decade or so later when some of us had the opportunity to go to college and some of us were more successful at monetizing our skills. But, for that glorious time we were all the same. Some of us were better athletes and some of us were more attractive and had more engaging personalities but we saw ourselves as being a part of a family. I knew who the "dorks" were but they were (my) "dorks". Even today I look back at those kids who I went to grade school with as family. We went through so much together. We experienced so many seminal events together. We did Art class next to each other. I painted my crude painting using reds and yellows and oranges next to Becky who seemed to always like blue in her paintings. We all wore smocks in Art class. No one used a credit card in grade school. No one thought of money. We were painting together and learning how to write our names in cursive. We played ball together. We ate all our lunches together. We were connected.

We are at a standstill. We are all breathing the same air in a way that, perhaps, we never have before. It's an opportunity. It's a wake up call. The way I see it anything that makes us all feel connected; anything that puts us all on the same page is good for a democracy and for a civilization. Yes, we are connected in a profound way. Not even the richest among us can live out their dreams if the people they need to facilitate those dreams are incapacitated, infected, immobilized, homeless, sick. The more we see ourselves as being interdependent on one another the more possible it will be for us to all live in a civilized and compassionate society. The more disconnected we grow from others the less sustainable will be our democracy .....and our dreams. And like now, but perhaps in other ways, no one will be safe. Money has little value when you can't spend it.

It's been a long time since I was in grade school but I'd go back. I think we could all use some grade school.

Food for thought.....