The small town returns

Finishing out this first week of living at the center of this epidemic, it was apparent to me how many details of living in a metropolitan area had dramatically changed.

When I added up the several tens of thousands of employees of all the major tech companies in Seattle that had been requested by their employers to work from home, I calculated that probably over 150,000 people were most definitely not on the road ways, on the sidewalks or in the stores.  That’s the population of a small town.

I’ve read some articles calling Seattle a ‘ghost town’ but that’s not accurate.  What I see driving and walking around Seattle reminds me of what it looked like when I moved here back in 1999.  You only had a little traffic during rush hours, but otherwise, you got around the city pretty efficiently.

Back then, there was still a ‘small town’ aspect to the city.

That aspect seems to have returned.  There seems to be several small towns existing right now:  Virtual and In-person

The virtual small town of Seattle are those 150K+ people working from home.  Many of those who work in technology are no stranger to doing their work virtually, it’s a familiar place.  Not just workers but students are now also part of this, as several universities also switched all their classes from in-person to online.

The in-person small town of Seattle are all those people that continue to work in retail, public transit, or services like the health care systems still functioning that don’t have the option or don’t want to go virtual.

Those that are still meeting in-person are continuing to  interact with each other, but with modifications like the yoga teachers I know who continues to hold smaller public classes (taking away shared props and mats) or the therapists who still meet with their clients in office, stocked full of disinfectant wipes and hand sanitizer.

I went out to the shopping mall for an hour just to see what that was like on a Friday night.  I found it sparse, but not empty.  Going through Sears, my partner Richard and I nearly had the store to ourselves.  I counted 8 people (including the clerks).  A few shoppers were wearing face masks.  I was happy to see people doing the ordinary browsing and shopping.  I’m happy people are still living their lives despite the extraordinary circumstances of this epidemic.

Each day, we are all making decisions whether to be more restrictive in our interactions and gatherings, how much or if we chose to wash our hands and whether or not we should start to prepare for this as our way of being for the rest of the month.

Tonight I’m left with the thought that despite the adversity of the week, life carries on.  Thank goodness for that.  We’ll need that strength and determination in the weeks ahead.

Copyright 2020 Eileen Dey Wurst

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