Marjorie Elaine, Lu Liu and Sophia L. Ángeles, USA
A lot of things have changed in the US in recent months. Looking back, we see roots of the current sociopolitical upheaval in the COVID-19 pandemic. The U.S. presents an interesting contrast to the scenario that Maria Dobryakova describes in Russia. In the U.S., the populace did not unite against the danger of the virus. Instead, there was a major split between those who complied with and those who rejected public health advice to shelter at home, wear masks, and get vaccinated. And now, five years later, the newly appointed head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is a person well known for his skepticism about vaccines, and a leading voice for the “anti-vaxxer” movement, as people who are against mandated vaccinations are known.
As Dobryakova notes, crises illuminate the powerful social construction of reality, including through the narrated memories we create about them. Dobryoakova suggests that Russians remember cozy days at home with family and friends, with an “undertone of togetherness.” In the US, there is little such public nostalgia. Instead, the country seems to be trying to leave the pandemic behind, to erase a period of divisiveness and confusion, and return to an elusive “normal.” And yet, the world we have returned to is not normal at all. We are more divided and confused than ever.
We would do well, we think, to reflect on what we could have learned from the COVID-19 pandemic. The diaries that we gathered from 35 U.S. families are replete with wisdom and insights into all kinds of learning that happened in homes and communities during that time: positive lessons about compassion, kindness, cooperation, protection of the most vulnerable, working together in the face of great uncertainty, reinvigorating intergenerational and transnational connections (using technology as a tool in creative ways), and centering wellness activities such as creative pursuits and being in nature.
There are also lessons we could learn about how things could have been done differently, or better, to mitigate against the greatest inequities (in which “essential workers” were left to bear the brunt of illnesses and deaths, and children in under-resourced homes and communities were left to flounder without sufficient educational supports). There are powerful lessons that we could have learned, and maybe still can, through careful reflection on what we all thought and experienced as we moved through that time. Our international consortium has the data to facilitate such reflection; the data we gathered may be even more powerful when analyzed at a distance. The U.S. team is working on a new book, tentatively titled Crisis Crossroads: What we could have learned from the COVID-19 pandemic (and maybe still can). We hope we can contribute to collective re-membering of all that happened during that time, honoring the voices and perspectives of the people in our study
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