The Light of Lessons from Covid’s Dirge

Article

Kathleen King

The Light of Lessons from Covid’s Dirge

“Was I deceived? or did a sable cloud/Turn forth her silver lining on the night?” John Milton’s 1634 poem (masque) included these stirring words, sparking our imagination of the bright side. Today we must dare to hear whispers of hope amidst Covid-19’s dirge, silver linings amidst shattered plans, lessons learned from empty classrooms, deeper love found in empty hugs. Covid has been a somber song, filled with loss, yet its reverberations can stir us to lives rebuilt by the gilded wisdom of our sorrows.

First, we have discovered an appreciation for the unseen joys of our lives: our connection with those

we love. What might have been an inconvenient trip to visit grandparents is now a joy we yearn to revisit. The gut-wrenching ache of holding a loved one’s hand in a hospital room is now a privilege we ache to have restored. A meal shared with friends, a birthday party for the kids, voices rising in communal prayer, a concert of swaying fans—all these are gifts we may have taken for granted but savor anew. We are the Who’s of Whoville left with the packages, ribbons, and bows, yearning to gather instead in the communal circle of connection with those we love. Perhaps our hearts have grown three sizes from Covid’s grinchly touch.

Second, we have reimagined education. The stagnant march towards integration of technology in education

got a swift kick, plunging us into utilizing platforms, materials, and tools otherwise tepidly approached. The school day was reimagined, and parents were tossed into a deeper understanding of the learning process, both limitations and

frustrations. The value of connection and social-emotional learning to foster academic success was reinforced. The importance of peer interactions and dialogue emerged from the struggles of its absence. Many of the traditions of schools were blown up, leaving contemplation of what was core and how it could be achieved in new ways. This imaginative thinking and reconstruction of education have great potential if adults resist the nostalgia of getting things back to the past exactly as it was, rather than constructing educational institutions that better serve all of our students and their lived experiences. thousand others who helped the essentials of life come to their doorstep. Survival depended not just on one’s own actions, but on those around us. At times, there was disagreement and disappointment on what one should be

doing for self-safety and the safety of others, but regardless of the tensions, we understand in a completely new way that we do not walk this world alone.

The value of connection and social-emotional learning to foster academic success was reinforced.

Third, we have a new understanding

of our interdependence. The pandemic knew no borders; no one was able to survive it alone. Even if one sequestered daily while the virus raged, that person relied on delivery personnel and the

Fourth, we have a new understanding of living in the day, never assuming

what tomorrow might bring. We lost control over so many aspects of our lives that were never truly in our control in the first place. We are not promised more than the present, and Covid lectured us on the need to live for the day. At times that day was filled with hopelessness and dissatisfaction, but it was still our day to live. All the planning and scheduling was mocked by the unfolding reality of the pandemic, but we were not left with nothing. We had each moment to reimagine and make enough.

Fifth, we gained a prism on our lives as we sequestered with ourselves. We may not have liked all that we had to see,