Corona Letters #22

Dear Fellow Quarantiners,

Do you remember the game, "Red light, Green light"?   One person, the "caller", stands with their back to a group and yells "Green light" and everyone starts running towards the person.   The "caller" then yells "Red light" as they swiftly turn around towards the group.   Everyone has to stop in their tracks.  If the caller sees anyone moving they are out.   The general goal of the game is to try and tag the calle, while somehow remaining unseen.  Then you "win".

It seems like the world is playing a big game of "Red light, Green light" right now.

We were all living our "Green light!" lives, going about our daily business, and suddenly the world seemed to shout,

"Red light!" and we stopped.

We stopped going to school, going to work, eating out, and socializing with friends.   And, if we didn't stop, we might find ourselves "out" with a nasty virus.

Sometimes we must leave our homes though, so we try to outsmart the caller by giving ourselves a

"Green light!"

We put on our masks, our gloves and armed with purell and sanitizing wipes, we enter the world.
We buy our groceries, pick up medicine and the drug store, pick up take out food and then we race back home, wipe everything down before it enters our home, we wash our hands raw and hope that we made it home before we our caught and the "caller" yells,

"Red light!"

We are at the stage now where we just want the game to be over (perhaps our mothers are collectively calling us in for dinner).

Some countries, like Denmark, Austria and the Czech Republic have just yelled,

"Green light!"

In Denmark, schools will open for younger children, in Austria some shops will open, and in the Czech Republic people will be able to play tennis again and swim amongst other things.   The rest of the world will watch, still frozen, to see if this bold move leads to the many constituents of those countries getting the virus and thus getting "out".   Or, it enables them to tackle the caller and be done with the quarantine.

Only time will tell.

Meanwhile, in New York City, there is a battle over who exactly is "calling".   Mayor de Blasio called,

"Red light!"

And, in doing so, he stated that the New York City schools would be closed for the rest of the year.
Governor Cuomo commented that de Blasio is not actually the caller and he does not have the power to say "Red light!"   The Governor made it clear that he is actually the caller.

While NYC is clearly in a "Red light" state of existence right now, the Governor has made it clear that he could call "Green Light" at any time.  Thus, NYC lives in a state of "Schrodingers light".  Neither Red nor Green.


The US seems to generally be in a "Red Light" state right now.    We are impatiently waiting for the "Green light!" where one of our fastest runners might be able to somehow tackle the caller and the game will be over.  It's getting dark, we are tired, and really hungry and just want to go inside for dinner (or in this case, we want to go OUT to dinner).

In the meantime, there are groups of players who have "taken themselves out of the game" so they can help those who are still trying to outsmart the "caller".   These are our doctors, nurses, scientists, grocery workers, restaurant workers, delivery people, and the list goes on.  The doctors and nurses don't believe anyone should ever be "out" and are constantly trying to get people back in the game.   The scientists are trying to keep anyone from getting "out" in the first place.   The people who work in the service industries are there for us when we give ourselves the "green light".  They help us in so many ways so that we can stay in the game.

The thing is, they are all still in the game as well, and they know this.   They can most definitely still be called "out".   They take the risk anyway.   Perhaps it is for the greater good, or perhaps they need a paycheck.  In any case, they are risking an awful lot so we can keep playing the game.

But, who is the real caller anyway?

It seems to me that many of the self-appointed "callers" are not the callers at all.  They are actually game players just like the rest of us.   Even if we tackled the President (how fun would that be?), the Governor, or Mayor, and they finally stopped yelling "Red light, Green light", the game would not be over.  They do not have to power to choose who is out and who gets to stay in the game.  They can only advise and guide us.   They don't want any of us to get out and it turns out, that is the real game.

In the coming weeks, we will probably hear

"Green light!"

in fits and starts as the world tries to get moving again.   Some of us will be inevitably be tagged out.


When you were a kid playing "Red light! Green light!" at dusk, the game got tougher as the sun sank below the horizon. More and more people were tagged out and only a few were left.    If you were one of those people, you were often left standing on a field, listening to your own heartbeat, watching your breath in the cool night sky, and you started listening to your own instincts instead of the caller.   The caller would yell,

"Green light!"

but you would remain still, knowing that he was going to quickly swirl his head around again shouting,

"Red Light!"

and you would not be able to stop yourself in time.

So, you became your own caller, knowing when to move and when to run, watching the body language of the person shouting "Green light!" instead of the words coming out of his mouth.

Maybe you'd win.   Maybe you'd lose.

In the end we have very little control.

We can listen to ourselves though, and hopefully that will be enough to help us survive this game.