Please Pull Over

I remember when I was a kid being fascinated that, as a society, we’d pull off to the side of the road to allow an ambulance or fire truck get to where it was going, faster. As a child, I appreciated the altruism surrounding the act of pulling over, even if I couldn’t quite grasp the magnitude of it. I didn’t know who they were rushing to help, but maybe the few seconds we saved them, made all the difference.

Cut to mid-March of 2020 and most of us as drivers are able to symbolically pull off the road by staying in our houses and practice “social distancing”. Like so many people, it took me a moment to recognize the severity of this situation. I hoped maybe this was an over-reaction, I believe I even referred to my own sister as a drama queen when she told us our day-to-day life would have to change drastically. Social distancing to this extrovert, sounded unpleasant. The idea of being confined to my house with my three children for upwards of a month feels claustrophobic and uncomfortable.

But what’s more uncomfortable is the spread of misinformation that this isn’t serious. I’m not sure who still needs to hear this, but this is about as serious as it gets.

If it helps you to visualize it, think about all the at-risk people you love inside the ambulance and you are sparing them the ride, just by pulling over. Just by staying in your home.

The purpose of staying home, avoiding others, metaphorically pulling over, is significant. We must flatten the curve, because our healthcare system cannot stand the weight of what’s coming if we don’t listen and follow directions now.

If we are doing it right--when we listen from inside our houses, we won’t hear sirens. It will be silent.

An alarming image we can all relate to is what’s happened in our local grocery stores; all the basics have been stripped from the shelves—things like eggs, soap, and paper towels. Everyone rushed out and took what they needed. Now imagine this at our hospitals--except it isn’t toilet paper that’s unavailable, it’s ventilators.

We have all been stripped down to the very bare essentials, and what we are left with is a primal reliance on each other.

At the heart of humanity is trust. While it may be the law to pull over to the side of the road and wait for the sirens to pass, we also want to be helpful and part of the solution. I may not know you, but we all know someone at risk we would never want inside an ambulance.

So please, pull over.