Driving home from my office the other night, I was thinking about the coronavirus situation we’d all been talking about–events cancelled right and left, meetings moved to cyberspace, kids pulled out of activities, schools closing. Panic. Everywhere. Then I heard these words:

“when the fear and panic takes a hold

look within your soul

when your sorrow drags you down below

you must take control

your strength will unfold

take control”

“Take Control”, Killswitch Engage, Atonement, 2019

The coronavirus situation makes us feel confused, anxious, angry, panicked. But this song got me thinking–panic and control are opposites.

When we feel panicked, we feel out of control. We feel we suddenly have no control over our environment. Our feeling of power–the ability to control our environment and bring about change–evaporates. When things get out of control, we panic amid the chaos.

The chaos feels very real right now. Our war with the coronavirus is guerrilla warfare. We can’t see it, and without testing, we can’t track it in our corner of the world. It feels inexorable, unavoidable.And we feel helpless, that we can’t do anything about it. I don’t know about you, but I’ve been feeling pretty panicked and out of control.

But the song reminded me that I can act to take back control. Right now, simple acts like washing hands, carefully wiping surfaces are rebel acts–acts of defiance, insurgency. toward this invisible enemy. Doing these things allows us to take back control, take it into our own hands. We stand apart from others as an act of self-protection. As we take control in these simple ways, we protect ourselves, families, communities.

These small acts of control and defiance rebuild our sense of personal power in this guerrilla war against Covid-19.

I’ve begun–I’m working from home now; we’re planning our strategic trip to the grocery store, and we will be ok.

Stay tuned. More to come.