The Human Family: Intricately Linked "COVID 19 A Call To Personal Action"

By Clifton Taulbert

“We are the keepers of each other.”

This is a statement often made when being rallied to live outside our comfort zones for the benefit of others—even those who live beyond our zip code and beyond our borders. We are challenged to respond because we have the capacity to do so. Humans have been uniquely gifted to build and sustain community among the peoples of the world in good times and in bad times. The gifting exists, but the choice to manifest the gift is always ours to make.

This worldwide coronavirus and its implication for the world has once again reminded us of just how linked we are…humans making this journey together. For many, mostly for cultural reasons, we may feel as if there are no connective threads bridging these human silos whose lives seemingly having little or no impact upon each other. We just keep pursuing our chosen paths and our tight circle of relationships. However, without fail, in the midst of such comfort, seemingly out of nowhere, our heretofore solid footings are shaken and our foundations disrupted. The uncertainty of our plans falls prey to questions we can’t answer and circumstances we can’t explain. Such life altering times always show up bringing with them lessons to learn and cultural norms to question. Our “normal” continues to be tested on this human journey and life lessons continue to spring forth.

As a young boy being raised by my community-minded great aunt, I recall with clarity the night my great-grandmother passed away. The small frame house where we lived was quiet. We had all gone to bed. After some time, the quietness was interrupted by rapid knocks on the wooden front door. “Boy git up and go see who’s at the door this time of night.” I reluctantly obeyed and got up. I opened the door to Cousin Beauty. She looked passed me and called out to Mama Ponk, her first cousin. “Ponk, come on we gotta go see Mama Pearl…just got word that she turned for the worse.” Needless to say no other words were passed, they knew what they had to do. Death was about to interrupt their lives.

All wrapped up, we headed up the graveled road, two older black women and a young boy. As the gravel and the dry twigs crackled beneath our feet, we made haste. Passing Miss Stanley’s house, who had already heard and was standing on her front porch, I heard her call out. “Ponk, Y’all call me if you need me.”

Though this happened in the Mississippi Delta over a half century ago, I still vividly recall that night and words of unselfishness that were spoken. “Y’all call me if you need me.”

In the last 36 hours of assessing and clarifying this viral pandemic, it is clear to me that a call for national “unselfishness” has penetrated the air waves. Unselfishness seeks to activate our “will” to alter our ways for the benefit of others, oftentimes bringing along a disruption of our comfort zones. The disruption has come to my house. I am being asked to lead my life as if my personal actions can impact the world. I am needed for a family who does not look like me or speak a language I have yet to learn. I am needed for cousins I will never know or kin I know well. I am needed for people whose names are difficult to pronounce and our lives separated by vast bodies of water. I am needed now.

We all are.

More importantly my unselfish response is essential. It is necessary for me to alter my routine for myself and for others. I am not just washing and sanitizing simply for my wife and son but for the human family. This call to consider our unselfishness as a gift to humanity is tantamount to Miss Stanley’s words over a half century ago. Her life was well ordered and her sleep needed not to be disturbed…but she understood community and what the “touch” of community required of her. “Y’all call me if you need me.”

The nation has been awakened by rapid knocks on a wooden door. The world has been texted.

How do I respond? What can an ordinary guy like me do to help contain this virus which has given birth to a global pandemic? I can’t manufacture testing kits. I have no ability to add to the vaccine research. I can’t build or add to hospital beds should they be needed. I can’t solve the economic crisis resulting from this negative global intrusion. Am I to remain on the sidelines with no way to participate?

In sobering times like these, we oftentimes have a clearer picture of our shared humanity and how intricately linked we are especially when the challenges we face strike at will and without regard to zip code or the circumstances of our birth. This seemingly randomness can be scary and emotionally traumatizing. However, information from the reaction and response to the 1918 pandemic has helped to galvanize answers to my pondering. I am not powerless.

Social distancing matters. I can do this. And its impact must not be minimized. With unselfish thinking as my guide, I will gladly alter my routine to do my part for my sisters and brothers well-being whether our paths ever cross. Unlike a medical response, unselfishness requires no degree or certificate of achievement. It requires no defined pedigree or acclaimed position in life. It requires no mastery of letters or eloquence of speech. Only your heart for others is required.

As I write my personal thoughts, my heart feels compelled to somehow stand up and be counted as best I can. I will do what is asked of me. And when we all take note and do our part, our world, our nation, our state, our city and our families will be better served. So I will borrow from the words of Kent Nerburn—a writer/brother whom I have never met but feel a kinship to his heartfelt words: