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[Editor's note: Developments relating to COVID-10 are evolving quickly. Please note that any information in this article is subject to change.]
Well, this escalated quickly.
I've spent the last month trying to fight the optimistic fight, to talk about how we just don't know yet so let's not freak out. To try and get my team to focus on the things that we can control. How we just need to keep doing what we do, and whatever happens will happen.
Well, it happened.
We’ll remember March 11 — the day the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus a pandemic — as a turning point, a day we will remember for the rest of our lives.
Me? I was leaving the office to go to a concert in Milwaukee with my wife and friends when news that UW was cancelling classes came out. Everything else rapidly followed. The rest of the 11th and throughout the 12th you could watch the world as we know it unwind one thumb flick at a time. My first thoughts were clearly selfish. How does this affect my family? My friends? Our business? I couldn't keep my head straight, and I couldn't stop from going to the dark places for very long.
It hasn't stopped, and it won't stop for a while. Not until we "flatten the curve." Not until we see what this beast really is and if it can be tamed. I think it can, and that we will, but it is going to suck for a bit.
So what do we do in the meantime? We live. We work if we aren't sick. We take our kids to school for as long as they have school. We shop and we eat and we try to play. We try to act like Madisonians always act (full disclosure: I live in Fitchburg, but you know what I mean).
How do we do this? I don't know, but I'm damn well going to try.
As long as I’m healthy and I’m following the CDC’s guidelines on restaurants, I’m going to eat out. If that changes, I’ll buy gift certificates from restaurants to give them an infusion of cash while we wait out the crisis. If I can't eat out, I'm ordering take-out or delivery. If I can safely buy something locally instead of buying it online, I'm going to. If I need something from a store and don't feel I can get there I'm going to call them and ask if they can get it to me. Worst thing they can say is no.
Why am I going to do this? Because I can, and because it matters. We can help each other by supporting each other. I'm a karma guy. I believe that if I do my part, it will come back around. For me and my family and my friends and my business.
What's in it for my business? Isthmus is supported by local advertising and events revenue. A lot of that advertising is based on people like you and me going and buying things and eating food and gathering with other people. Many of those things are getting canceled right now. If I can support those people now, then they'll be able to support me when the dust settles. I want to help them weather this thing so when that dust settles we can go again.
It will settle. Everything is going to be different. It already is. We will have lost something, and we better have learned. And we certainly must go again.
Be smart and be safe. If you are sick, stay home. Hug your kids and tell the people close to you that you love them. Find creative ways to connect despite the social distancing suggestions that we all need to keep right now.
Let’s take care of each other.
Craig Bartlett is the associate publisher of Isthmus.
[Editor's note: This article was published on March 13 before most restaurants announced they were closing and federal recommendations changed to limiting gatherings to 10 people. Isthmus will continue to update our website with stories of life under quarantine. But bear with us as we try, like everyone else, to keep up with the rapidly shifting landscape.]
