Covid-19 and Our Emotions

How has Covid-19 affected your emotions? Here are recent perceptions of a New York Times' reporter, Stephen Petrow:

"Depression crept up on me over the summer and into the fall, so slowly that I wasn't aware of the change in my well-being-until suddenly I was ... I knew I wasn't alone. Still, many people I know continue to say they are ''fine"-or defiantly "fine, fine, fine," as one neighbor answered when I checked in with him."

Petrow confessed that "fine" had been his go-to response when persons asked how he was doing, even when he was depressed or anxious. A psychologist helped to wean him off using "fine" when asked "How are you?" "Fine" is neither an emotion nor a feeling. Now he gives more honest responses like "happy" or "content," "angry" or "sad." When he uses such emotive words, Petrow finds often that others are more able to share their true feelings.

How can we be helpful in these continuing months of Covid quarantine? How can we live out Jesus' call to "love one another as I have loved you"? One way is living with more intention to share our feelings with others, thereby expressing openness to others' sharing at that level.

Stephen Petrow ends his story: "To see one another, we need to make ourselves visible. To help one another, we need to acknowledge we need a hand, too. I am trying."

- Norm Thomas