Month: March 2020

An Open Letter to the Coronavirus

Dear Coronavirus, or COVID-19, or whatever it is you like to be called, or maybe more accurately, whatever it is we will spend the rest of our lives trying to forget you as.

You set off quietly, a silent bomb, in that market in that city and province, of tens of millions of souls, that no one had every heard of before.

And now here you are, in every maskless breath, every missed handshake, empty restaurant countertop, senior’s home nightmare, accelerating caseload curve.

We don’t quite know what to do, us normal people. Stay calm (inside) and carry on. Buy cans of beans we hope never to eat. Tell ourselves the same stories we tell to our kids.

You have revealed blue skies while the markets flash red. Grounded all flights and forced us to walk and to sit and to think and to reflect and to ponder and to feel and to slow down. To consider those we care for most and how to care for them best, in this moment, maybe in every moment.

You have somehow managed to unify humanity. In our frailty and helplessness; in our hopefulness and decency. You have made heroes of supermarket clerks and delivery drivers and gods of doctors, nurses and occasionally even bureaucrats.

I am the Italians. I am the Iranians. I am the first case in Zimbabwe. I am the last case in Paris. I am the asymptomatic untested masses. I am the drive-thru swabber. I am the accordion player on the balcony and the grandchild of the deceased.

I am doing squats in my living room and working from the dining room. Spending St. Patty’s Day in the kitchen and praying at night in bed. Sending my dad noodles and my mom whatsapp memes. Saving money and investing in time with my wife. I have a quarantine corner on my couch and limit my news consumption to 20 minutes a day, both for my mental health. I am trying my best to be ok while I know everyone else is trying the same.

I hope you leave even quicker than you came. Feel free to leave some of the good stuff behind and then never return. We were doing well before you, and I think that’s actually true. Now do what you’re gonna do and leave us with some of the lessons – and all of the compassion, clarity and ambition. And be on your way!

We’re Pregnant, In A Pandemic!

Just about nine months ago, I wrote an opening blog post for a blog I didn’t have, on a topic I didn’t know anything about. I was in Ankara, Turkey, for six weeks of work and my wife and I were set to begin our family planning process upon my return.

And now I’m writing again, with the amazing news that we’re officially pregnant! A lot has happened in these last nine months and none of those things include a baby growing to maturity in my wife’s womb. We upgraded our apartment after two years of married life in a very modest initial shared space; my wife’s work contracts kept getting extended; and I began months of intensive work training that included six weeks in the amazingly beautiful city of Vienna. Things fell into place in so many ways but still no baby news. Dalia started to get stressed and I also started to wonder.

Fast forward to the last few weeks and the state of our lives, and without much exaggeration, the rest of the human family have changed dramatically.

First came the fabulous news that my first oversea’s post would be in Rome! It’s the kind of news that makes you wake up with a smile and see sunrays even in the depth of Canadian winter. As we were integrating and sharing this news, the folks in Wuhan, China were living at another extreme.

The novel coronavirus, now called Covid-19, engulfed and shut down the Hubei province of China. Cases were reported outside China, even here in Canada, but no one quite imagined the global reach and impact we would all soon experience. The updates over the past weeks, days and now hours, bringing most of the world into daily realities that we never realistically envisioned.

Sports leagues closed down, millions of people forced to stay at home for weeks at a time, the Iranian Health Minister got corona, Justin Trudeau’s wife, and even Tom Hanks. I think North America woke up to the threat with the NBA season cancellation, alongside Forrest Gump’s diagnosis. Well maybe everyone except Donald Trump, but that’s another story.

Covid life has been circling down upon us slowly, steadily and eerily. On Saturday, we went to a restaurant on its last night open until who knows when. On Sunday, we saw Little Women in the theatre and came out to a sign saying that the cinema was now closed. Then on Monday, we officially began working from home. Public servants working from home in a capital city is a big, big deal.

So we’re adjusting day by day. Sharing time in our comfortable home, looking tentatively forward to a life in Italy, where Covid has had a terrifying impact thus far, and now, preparing to welcome our first child into the world.

Dalia did a test on Thursday, then another one on Friday. Yesterday, she went to do her bloodwork and today, while I was on a conference call about Covid’s impact on our international operations, she was on her own call with the doctor confirming her pregnancy. We danced and jumped and laughed with joy.

The world is in a state none of us has ever seen before and we can’t wait to one day share with our child the circumstances under which she/he decided to enter our lives. Already one with a knack for grand entrances!