A Different Kind of

World

A Perspective on Life in the

Midst of a Global Pandemic

Lockdown

Mini-Book Strategy Series –

Book 9

Rand Morimoto, Ph.D.

Copyright © 2020 Rand Morimoto All rights reserved.

ISBN-13: 979-8642349717

DEDICATION

As much as this book is based on my life and experiences of changes in routines that I commonly refer to as my

“first world problems,” I dedicate this book to those who have unfortunately lost their lives or have been drastically impacted by COVID-19.

I further dedicate this book to the men and women who have committed their days and night in roles deemed essential, helping the rest of us remain healthy, safe, secure, and well cared for in all that’s going on.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Thank you Brother George Van Grieken for the email exchange the other day that inspired me to sit down and write this book!

Thank you Ana Henderson and Eduardo for the many Shelter from Home photos of day to day life the past few weeks that adorn these pages

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Dedication.............................................................iii

Acknowledgement.................................................iv

Table of Contents....................................................v

Opening Thoughts..................................................1

1 We are SO Busy!..................................................1

Work to Save for Retirement...............................1

Work to Save for the Kid’s Education.................2

Work to Keep a Successful Career......................2

Supporting Elderly Parents.................................2

Ensuring the Kids are Building “their Resume”..2

Keeping Up with Everyone Else..........................3

Keeping Digitally Connected to the World..........3

Living the Modern Life That Seems to be

Expected of Us.....................................................4

2 It Will Never Happen!.........................................5

Shelter at Home Ordinances Lock Us In!............5

It’s Only Going to be Three Weeks – We Can

Handle This.........................................................6

Working from Home............................................6

Schools Shutdown for a Month – Hmm...............7

A Month is Now Three Months............................7

3 Everything is Cancelled and Closed!...................8

The Impact of School Closures............................8

The Impact of Venue Closures............................9

The Impact of No Large Gatherings....................9

The Shift from Retail to Online Shopping...........9

The Closing of Borders and Travel......................9

The Need for Toilet Paper!................................10

4 A Peaceful World...............................................11

Pollution Levels are Down.................................11

The Earth has Stopped Vibrating......................12

A Quick Drive is a Quick Drive..........................12

Calmer Conversations.......................................12

More Time to Get Things Done than Squeeze

Things in............................................................12

5 Life in a Lockdown............................................13

Video Conferencing for Work............................13

Video Conferencing for School..........................13

Video Conferencing for Kid’s Activities.............14

Online Video Birthdays and Celebrations.........14

Virtual Gatherings and Connections.................14

Getting Outdoors and Smelling Fresh Air!........15

6 Who’s Affected the Most?..................................16

Living Paycheck to Paycheck............................16

Healthcare Tied to Employment........................16

Family as our Support Mechanism....................17

Work versus Safety............................................17

7 Any Bright Spots to it all?.................................18

Better Homemaker............................................18

Closer Families..................................................19

Knowing Neighbors and the Community..........19

Being Aware and Socially Minded.....................20

That We Can Potentially Solve World Hunger

and Resource Shortages....................................20

That We Can (and Need) to Work Together as a

Global Community.............................................20

8 My Hopes and Dreams from this (Hopefully

Unique) Experience..............................................22

About the Author..................................................23

vi

A Different Kind of World vii

OPENING THOUGHTS

I entered 2020 with a dozen international travels trips hitting five continents booked across the first ten weeks of the year, with meetings overlapping one another spanning global time zones around the clock. Global stock markets were hitting all-time highs, 10-mile commutes in the San Francisco Bay Area took 90-minutes or more, weekends family activities were booked up solid 4-5 months into the year, life was insanely busy, and then it all changed…

The pandemic lockdown caused by COVID-19 forced an unprecedented shutdown of schools, stores, restaurants, sporting events, international and domestic travels, normal daily activities worldwide came to a halt.

I’m going to take this opportunity to jot this down now.

When things start up again, if life picks up in the insanely busy schedule where it left off a few weeks ago, I may never have the same thoughts, feelings, and perspective as I do now.

I challenge those who read this book to also stop for a moment, jot down some of your thoughts in the midst of all that’s going on, it’ll be interesting for all of us years from now to go back and read about this unique moment in time…

1

1 WE ARE SO BUSY!

If I were to describe a day in my life prior to the COVID-19 forced shutdown, I would say “life was busy!”

Busy days at work, busy days with the family at home, weekends packed with family and community activities, business travels somewhere every week, commute time taking up a chunk of the day, life was non-stop!

Work to Save for Retirement

Somewhere in time we got on this kick that we have to work two and three times as hard or as long to make more than enough to pay the bills, but to have extra to save for our retirement. So, it’s not just good enough to just “make ends meet,” we had to do more.

Probably a good part of that is we’re living longer and we don’t want to have to be working when we are in our 70s, 80s, or even 90s, so we better do a good job 1

Chapter 1: We are SO Busy!

squirreling away money when we’re “young enough” to make a good income so we can enjoy our senior years.

I once heard an old guy complain that he worked so hard and for so long that now that he’s retired, he’ too old to go on vacation and enjoy all the nice things he was saving up for…

Work to Save for the Kid’s Education

Oh, and for those of us with kids, it was more than just making money to put food on the table and a roof over our heads, plus making extra for our retirement, we had to save up for “college” for our kids.

Back when college tuition and housing was the cost of a family vacation or two, we would consider giving up the luxury for a few years and help our kids through college.

But now that tuition plus room and board “starts” at $30k and can reach into $50k or $60k a year for 4 (and many times 5) years “per kid,” that’s no longer foregoing a couple years of luxuries in life. That piles on top of everything else to keep working to save, save, save.

Work to Keep a Successful Career

As we all have this pressure to earn a living, save for retirement, save for the kids education, it’s more than just putting in our 8am-5pm ho-hum job, but really amps us up to do “whatever it takes” to keep our jobs, be continuously relevant in what we do, maintain a competitive edge so that we can have a successful and prosperous career.

We’re needing to do more than clock in and clock out, we want to be in more control of our success and future so that we can continue to provide for our family and fulfill our obligation as financial contributors to all that’s going on.

Supporting Elderly Parents

For many, the obligation extends beyond just taking care of ourselves and our immediate family, but it can 2

A Different Kind of World also include caring for elderly parents. As my Cousin Sue shared, we’re this “sandwich generation” caring for both parents as well as children, for far longer than income earners have had to do in the past as our parents are living longer, and our kids are needing more financial assistance longer.

Ensuring the Kids are Building “their Resume”

As parents, we take the responsibility to grow the skills and the “resume” our children need to get them into a good college or get them skills that’ll help them get scholarships, internships, or trade skills they need when they get older. So it’s enrolling and supporting the kids through sports activities (swim team, soccer, little league, karate) or after school activities like piano, violin, dance, theater, scouting, etc.

Kids activities that used to be once or twice a month a couple decades ago are now 3, 5, even 7 days a week from the time the kids are 8-years old! Gone are the days of the kids having some exposure to sports or arts, somewhere we’re all expecting our pre-teens and teens to all be Olympic athletes and virtuoso artists.

With 2 or more kids, it’s racing from one after school or weekend activity to another, or splitting time with other families to carpool to get the kids everywhere they need to be!

Keeping Up with Everyone Else

Social Media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) brings everyone else’s success and good fortune right in our face every time we open the app and scroll through what

“everyone else is doing.” We can’t be slugs sitting around just relaxing when it seems like “everyone else” is out partying, having a great time, going on vacations, and kids are doing amazing things. Social media drives us to keep up with the exciting and full lifestyle that others appear to be having.

3

Chapter 1: We are SO Busy!

And we can’t just take our family to the local beach or park for a good time, we need to do those fancy trips to Disneyland, or Hawaii, or be sipping a latte in Paris. It seems like it’s more, more more…

Rarely do we see anyone ever post the “bad days” they have (which we know everyone has bad days too, right?), and the more friends we have, the better chance it is to see something cool and exciting happening to “someone”

every single day. (I’m getting exhausted just writing this…)

Keeping Digitally Connected to the World And while we are working hard, shuttling our kids around, planning our next cool getaway that we can post on social media to show off to our friends, since we have the news of the world at our fingertips, we might as well check in on the news, the latest in fashion, what the movie stars and social media influencers are up to.

There’s always something going on around the world that there’s something new to read 24x7, and that doesn’t even include the time and convenience of our streaming the latest videos to our phones, laptops, and tablets.

Living the Modern Life That Seems to be Expected of Us

It was only a couple generations ago that being a farmer sowing the fields, putting food on the table, and raising the kids until they were old enough to do the same was plenty in life. But these days, the cost of a college education, the cost of housing, the cost of living, the cost to just “keep up with the Joneses” requires us to do more, and more, and more…

The treadmill of life seems to start the day we are old enough to crawl and walk, and technology cranks that wheel faster and faster as we add years to our life.

4

A Different Kind of World Our busy lives perpetuate themselves with non-stop actions, We work hard to pay for retirement we might not live to enjoy. We’re looking at our phones and fumbling around social media instead of enjoying the moment with our family, kids, and friends. We’re sitting in traffic sometimes half as long as we’re working in the office.

We go on vacation only to run from sight to sight to take selfies we can show off on social media only to feel like we need a restful vacation to unwind after our vacation.

We’re exhausted every day, yet we wake up the next morning and do it all again…

It’s a life we live, but NOTHING will ever cause this crazy pace to stop, force us to slow down, lock us in our homes, and interrupt this crazy cycle, right?.

5

2 IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN!

A few years ago, if someone said that our government would force us to stay at home, we’d spend 24hrs a day /

7days a week with our spouse and kids, that an “exciting time” would be getting out of the house to take some hike, bike, or walk around the neighborhood, I would have said that was some interesting plot to a movie, but wouldn’t happen in the “real” world.

Who would have thought that we’d have NO traffic, NO weekend sports activities, NO parties, NO concerts, schools would be closed, malls would be closed, ??? Or what world would we live in where our GRANDPARENTS

would use that fancy contraption called a computer or iPad and do a video conference call with us? That would NEVER happen…

6

A Different Kind of World Shelter at Home Ordinances Lock Us In!

Well, on March 16, 2020, the San Francisco Bay Area where I live did just that. The six Bay Area county health departments declared a health emergency and issued an ordinance forcing everyone to “Shelter at Home”.

COVID-19, a virus that the populations of the world has never experienced before (and thus haven’t built up an immunity from) was sweeping around the globe. Tens of thousands of people were already infected with the virus, and three out of every hundred people infected were dying from it within a few short weeks. We have no vaccine. We have no cure. If it spread quickly, our healthcare system wouldn’t have enough doctors, nurses, or hospital beds to treat everyone.

So, the solution was to keep everyone HOME, to

“Shelter in Place,” to prevent the passing of the virus from person to person. What we thought could never happen, was happening…

It’s Only Going to be Three Weeks – We Can Handle This

In the first few days of the issuance of the ordinance, markets and big box stores were packed with shoppers buying up everything they could. With a whole lot of uncertainty that we would be locked at home and not allowed outside, people packed their pantries, refrigerators, freezers, and garages with whatever they could.

Store shelves were empty. Then the fear that the stores may never be restocked, hoarding took place where people were buying way more than they would ever need.

However, after the initial round of hoarding and a little calm took place, we remembered the Shelter in Place ordinance was only for 3-weeks. We could do this. It’s a short time. Hunker down for a couple weeks and it’ll be over…

7

Chapter 2: It Will Never Happen!

Working from Home

Other than those deemed “Essential workers” (those that worked in hospitals, grocery stores, pharmacies, public transportation, those that supported these essential workers, etc), if your business wasn’t completely closed and you weren’t laid off, you were working from home.

Working from home meant a lot of Web and Video conference calls and meetings, working on a home laptop or computer, doing tasks you might normally do in an office, but instead do them from your kitchen table or if you were lucky, from a separate room in your home.

Schools were all closed, kids were sent home, and since this was only going to be a couple weeks, it was like an extended Spring Break. No school assignments, nothing formal, so effectively a whole lot of TV and video games for the kids, while parents tried to find some semi-quiet place in the house to “work from home.”

Schools Shutdown for a Month – Hmm

However, a couple weeks into the whole shutdown, school districts started realizing that this wasn’t going to be over in a couple weeks, and started to come up with plans to do remote schooling over Web and Video conferencing technologies.

School districts began announcing school closures not through the 31st of March, but instead through the 1st of May. What was seeming to be just a 3-week “thing” was now going to extend for another month. Everyone was now getting the hmm thinking going. Like, “hmm, this might not be over any time soon...”

A Month is Now Three Months

Sure enough, March 31st became May 3rd. Schools announced they will NOT be reconvening in-person classes the rest of the school year. The May 3rd return became a stay at home until at least May 31st. That 8

A Different Kind of World

“temporary” Shelter from Home thing was going to stretch now well into 2-1/2 months. All those things we thought were temporary are now going to be a new norm and a longer new way of life.

The normal hustle and bustle of daily life has changed, we’re all stuck at home, now what…

9

3 EVERYTHING IS CANCELLED AND

CLOSED!

The shutdown caused by the Shelter in Place ordinances brought everything to a halt. Many venues are completely closed, like schools, restaurants, shopping malls, sport facilities, gyms, parks, and playgrounds.

Even if you wanted to go somewhere, everything was closed. With short term shelter in place orders being extended another month, and then another month, any plans for the next few months or possibly the entire year has been put on hold. A very different world when everything is cancelled and closed!

The Impact of School Closures

The closure of schools for colleges shifted relatively quickly to remote Web-based courses as most schools 10

A Different Kind of World already had some form of online class structure in place.

However, for K-12 schools, since most instruction is done in classrooms, the shift to some type of “study from home” model was not readily available.

Schools and school districts had to figure out how to setup the infrastructure to support students doing classwork from home. Teachers had to create curriculum that could be provided and administered remotely.

Families that didn’t have home computers or Internet needed support in getting connectivity for a remote schooling model. There were many challenges in shifting from classrooms to home-based schooling.

Once the dust settled on remote instruction, schools and students had to face the reality that school sporting events, school dances and the prom, and even graduation ceremonies were going to need to be cancelled.

The Impact of Venue Closures

The ordinance not only had everyone Shelter from Home, but gatherings outside of the home were banned.

Churches were closed, birthday and anniversary celebrations had to be postponed or cancelled, even weddings had to be cancelled.

The Impact of No Large Gatherings

With no large gatherings allowed, annual events that have NEVER been cancelled were being cancelled such as NO St. Patrick’s Day celebrations, NO Easter services, NO professional sports (basketball and hockey season ended abruptly, Major League Baseball season never got started), annual conferences and conventions were cancelled or were hosted “online”, even the 2020

Olympics in Tokyo had to be postponed.

And you know things are really bad when Disneyland and Disney World closed with no planned reopening dates due to State and local health ordinances, but also the ability to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the amusement parks had to be figured out.

11

Chapter 3: Everything is Cancelled and Closed!

The Shift from Retail to Online Shopping Stores not deemed “essential,” that included retail stores and shopping malls had to switch to online shopping only. Even online retailers were having challenges fulfilling orders as workers in the distribution centers were at risk of spreading the virus from worker to worker. Things that normally would take a day or two for delivery were being delayed.

The Closing of Borders and Travel

Travel was also completely interrupted with health officials advising travel only for essential purposes.

However not only the advice of minimizing travel, many countries and even states in the U.S. closed their borders or imposed quarantines for arriving travelers.

For some countries like the United States, returning citizens were able to enter, but others were restricted or faced mandatory quarantines. Some countries like Singapore banned foreigners from entering its country, and while it allowed its citizens to return, they must remain in country managed housing for 14-days upon arrival under mandatory quarantine.

The Need for Toilet Paper!

And oh, while everything was cancelled and closed, toilet paper hoarding became a thing… Not exactly sure why Sheltering at Home required people to suddenly have a need for 100, 200, 400 rolls of toilet paper, but figured maybe in a few years when we look back at this book, we will know the answer (probably not…) 12

4 A PEACEFUL WORLD

With all the changes, inconveniences, and uncertainty caused by the spread of COVID-19 and the challenges the Shelter from Home ordinances were, every week I have been reading stories about nature returning to cities and parks. National Park Rangers have taken pictures of animals walking through campgrounds, down normally busy roads, and grazing in parking lots. COVID-19

shutdowns have cleared the hustle and bustle of humans roaming around, and has allowed animals and nature to return our parks and city streets.

13

Chapter 4: A Peaceful World Pollution Levels are Down

I’ve read several articles about pollution levels being lower than ever. Photographs have emerged showing the canals of Venice Italy having clear water instead of dirty murky waters. Skies in northern India normally polluted from SMOG were so clear that pictures from cities show views of the Himalayan Mountains that haven’t been seen from the cities in years.

The Earth has Stopped Vibrating

One article noted that with all of the cars and factories coming to a halt, that the normal rumbling and vibrations of automation that normally causes the earth to vibrate had dropped dramatically. Scientists were running studies and tests during this “calm Earth” period that has not been possible since industrialization.

A Quick Drive is a Quick Drive

With everyone Sheltering at Home, working from home, not driving to school nor after school activities, the streets and highways are empty. A short drive is a quick drive. Traffic and traffic jams are not a challenge during the days, evenings, or weekends.

Calmer Conversations

While at the beginning, there was a lot of stress and uncertainty, but weeks into the Shelter at Home ordinance, people seem to be settling in to this new norm. By eliminating commute hours every day, and people not trying to squeeze in meetings on the 2-3 days they’re not out on business travels, conversations in meetings have been much calmer. It sure seems like everyone is much more collaborative and supportive now that this new norm is settling in.

More Time to Get Things Done than Squeeze Things in

It used to be that everything had to be squeezed in between meetings, travels, and various activities. Where there used to be limited hours in the day to squeeze 14

A Different Kind of World things in, working from home without commutes and travels, there’s a lot more time in the day to focus on getting things done.

Without all the hustle and bustle of what used to be daily life of travel, commutes, meetings, school activities, kids’ activities, life is much simpler right now. Will things change like a light switch being turned on, or will some of us choose to retain a calmer and more peaceful model of living…

15

5 LIFE IN A LOCKDOWN

While in the midst of this crazy lockdown our day to day routine might seem ho-hum and now becoming somewhat of a new norm routine, we will look back at this moment in time in 5, 10, or 25 years from now and think “wow, did we really do that?” Here’s a snapshot of the current norm…

Video Conferencing for Work

Video conferencing entered our home as soon as we were locked inside of it. For those of us who shifted from working in an office to working from home, day to day conversations with co-workers, customers, vendors, and others were done over video conferencing. The big 16

A Different Kind of World winners in this have been technologies like Zoom, Teams, and Skype.

Video Conferencing for School

But not just workers, as schools shifted from in classroom learning to online learning, video conferencing was added to academic learning. There are times during the day when there are 3 or 4 Web/Video calls going on in the house, with everyone grabbing their own corner or room to have their meeting.

For the littler ones in the family with K-4 age kids, teachers and parents can’t expect the kids to do school work online the same way a college or high schooler might quickly adapt to a computer, keyboard, and camera for their learning. The younger kids in the family need more parental help getting online, doing activities, and navigating their way to and through the digital highway.

Video Conferencing for Kid’s Activities But video conferencing didn’t stop at just work for parents and academics for the kids, after school programs were shifted to video conferencing as well. In my household, within a week of the Shelter at Home ordinance, we were doing violin lessons, ballet classes, Japanese language class, tap dancing class, even remote video gardening, woodworking, and clay!

Organizations that provided after school activities had the choice of getting creative, or shutting down, and I love it how people got creative! The gardening class my 7-yr old attends has the families pick up a “gardening kit” a couple days before the online class, usually comes in a bag with dirt, seeds, egg cartons, or the like. And the clay and woodworking classes have us pick-up a bag with clay, wood, nails, and sandpaper. So, when the video conferencing class begins, all of the students have the materials in front of them at home, and the teacher does a video lesson on the class activity!

17

Chapter 5: Life in a Lockdown Online Video Birthdays and Celebrations With limits on gatherings, we had to turn to video conferences for birthdays and other celebrations.

Instead of everyone getting together, a video call link would be sent out, and we’d have a family and friends gathering “online”. Not quite the same as an in person family and friends gathering with food, cake, confetti, and balloons, but with some creativeness we’ve managed to buy/send food, gifts, party supplies, and the like and still do a terrible rendition of the Happy Birthday song!

Virtual Gatherings and Connections

Being remote and unable to gather in person, we’ve managed to have more “virtual get togethers” with family and friends that we might normally get in during a week or month. In the “real world,” sometimes it’s difficult to coordinate around travel schedules, kids weekend activities, or just the lack of desire to “drive” for hours to get somewhere in ugly traffic.

However, in the virtual get together world, no one has the excuse of not being able to flick on a camera and “get together”! And no one can use the excuse that “they’re traveling” or “they’re on vacation” or “they’re completely booked up for weeks”. So a new and more accessible world of virtual gatherings, making “keeping connected”

a lot easier than in the past!

Getting Outdoors and Smelling Fresh Air!

With no weekend sports, birthday parties, and activities we did a lot of hiking, biking, walking, and swimming on weekends. And being locked inside all the time, any excuse to “get outside” was a welcome escape.

Despite a “Shelter from Home” ordinance, the ordinance did allow for outdoor activities as long as we remained 6-feet apart from others. Family members can be next to each other, just keep your distance on the hiking and biking trails from others.

We managed to get out and explore local trails that we haven’t been on before, always a new adventure to see 18

A Different Kind of World and experience something new and different as part of that “excitement” for the week!

19

6 WHO’S AFFECTED THE MOST?

When we step back for a moment of all of our “first world problems” of mere inconveniences, there are definitely inequalities in society and bigger challenges many have faced in this global pandemic lockdown than others. While many (including I) have “complained” of working from home and being inconvenienced by this lockdown, there are so many people that are out of jobs, have no income, no support, or locked indoors with literally no place to go for help.

Living Paycheck to Paycheck

Our most vulnerable community members are those living paycheck to paycheck that lost their jobs or had their work hours cut back that are being greatly impacted financially. When the place people work at is not deemed essential and closes their doors, these individuals are out of a job. And not just one clothing store, or restaurant, or hair salon but ALL stores and service business in the entire industry are closed, 20

A Different Kind of World preventing the person from finding a job at another similar business for a job.

Healthcare Tied to Employment

Because our healthcare system has been built to have employers provide healthcare benefits to their workers, when people have lost their jobs, for most, they have also lost their healthcare coverage. A terrible time during a health crisis to lose healthcare benefits and services, that even with unemployment payments from the government to keep food on the table, there might not be enough to go around to pay for medical insurance costs.

Family as our Support Mechanism

For many that have lost their jobs or have had their incomes drastically reduced, they have returned home to live with parents or other family members to make do.

Those with family and extended friend support have been able to lean on others for assistance.

Unfortunately, new immigrants or those without external support have limited options to “return home” or have extended family in the area to get temporary assistance.

Work versus Safety

Even workers deemed “essential” like hospital workers, grocery and pharmacy workers, and emergency first responders, while still having a job and income, have been thrust to the frontline at risk of catching the virus and being medically compromised by illness.

Many essential workers have had to choose between income and their health and safety. Even for those essential workers personally committed to continuing their role in helping others during the lockdown and willing to risk their health and safety in doing so, have placed their family members at risk when they return from work every day.

COVID-19 has imposed challenges on many, that those 21

Chapter 6: Who’s Affected the Most?

who complain about their inconveniences should stop for a moment and think of others in much more challenging situations. And if possible, reach out to others and share your good fortune with them, to see what you can do to lend a hand to those who could most use a helping hand.

22

7 ANY BRIGHT SPOTS TO IT ALL?

There is no way to minimize the impact that the effects of the global shutdown has had on families, individuals, and businesses, but if we can find a brighter spot to this experience, there are so many lessons learned and hopefully both short term and long term reflection on how we may do things differently in the future. Here are some of my bright spots in this experience…

Better Homemaker

Many of us have become better cooks, better seamstresses, better gardeners. I get text messages 23

Chapter 7: Any Bright Spots to it all?

from my sister-in-law every week on some fancy meal my brother has whipped up for the week. I would have never thought my brother was such a good cook, cats out of the bag now. When this lockdown is over, you owe us a home cooked meal or two, bro!

Many have taken to sewing cloth masks, or have had to make a pair of pants or a shirt last a little longer as stores are shutdown and replacing items isn’t as simple as running to the mall and getting a new pair of whatever.

With extended stretches of time on our hands, all those home repairs, that garden we talked about starting, the reorganizing of the garage and closets we talked about all seem like good excuses to get out of the house and be “busy” while the spouse deals with the kids and their remote schoolwork…

Closer Families

For families that normally have insanely busy lifestyles with parents shuttling kids in opposite directions all week and weekend long, with no after school or weekend sports and activities, once we can get the kids to put their electronics away and grab their attention, there’s more family time than ever.

And after 6+ solid weeks of being at home, with the kids having mastered their online game, everyone has binge streamed and watched all back episodes of their favorite series, the shear boredom brings everyone out of their rooms and cocoons to see what’s up with everyone else in the family…

Knowing Neighbors and the Community

Having lived in the place for 20+ years, now that we’re walking around the neighborhood, and all of our neighbors being home 24x7 as well, we have finally stopped to say “hi” and meet all of our neighbors (with at least a 6’ social distance between us). People that we normally zip by as we rush to work, or running late to 24

A Different Kind of World some activity as they’re rushing to theirs, it has been a time to get to know our community like we’ve never paused to do before.

Being that restaurants are closed other than for “to-go” food orders, we have made it a point to do take-out orders from our local restaurants. Most of them are mom and pop small businesses, so for restaurants we’ve zipped by hundreds of times over the years, we’ve stopped and ordered food to go.

We’ve gotten to know our neighborhood, our local restaurants, and the small businesses in our area that we’ve never managed to take the time to know as well in the past.

Being Aware and Socially Minded

As we have been mindful of others less fortunate than us, we have reached out to support the local food bank, homeless shelter, churches, non-profit organizations, museums, and art centers that have been impacted and can use all the support they can get.

We know we may not be able to solve everyone’s challenges, but if we can do a little and make a bit of a difference, it has been important to us to do what we can.

We know we most certainly can do just fine with less, but we know so many people will not be able to survive with none.

That We Can Potentially Solve World Hunger and Resource Shortages

In an interesting reflection, as we are working and living from home, shopping for what we need, cooking and eating our daily meals, we read about the food supply chain and the oil and energy supply chain flooded with excess capacity.

Dairies are pouring out excess milk, farmers are 25

Chapter 7: Any Bright Spots to it all?

turning over ripe crops, poultry and beef producers are destroying or donating unused product because hotels, restaurants, convention facilities, and large corporate buyers are not buying 50-70% of the products being produced.

Oil tankers are filled to the brim and idle offshore as all land-based storage tanks are full.

We stop to ponder whether as a global society we may actually solve world hunger by consuming only what we need, and not wasting so much food and natural resources left unused by large institutional buyers. That we might actually have enough natural resources in the world to go around, as long as we use what we need and get the rest distributed to those who need it.

That We Can (and Need) to Work Together as a Global Community

As local communities and regions, we have come together for a common cause, doing things that has been asked of us, foregoing certain luxuries and liberties so that we can do our part in this global effort and initiative.

As we provide support and aid to those in our communities, as we spend cycles working together to help others, and even as families that we spend time with our children and work together as parents, partners, families, and friends that we bring together shared goals for the good of our extended community.

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8 MY HOPES AND DREAMS FROM THIS

(HOPEFULLY UNIQUE) EXPERIENCE

I challenge everyone to sit down and write out your hopes and dreams from all that’s gone on, what you might consider doing differently when this is all over, how you might do things, think about things, and help others here forward.

For me:

• I hope we as a society will look to be “less busy”

24x7 to “live life” for what it is today

• I hope we will all emerge from this keeping some of those routines with our kids, our families, our friends and truly be more engaged in “life”

• I hope we will all continue to help others who really are truly vulnerable, support local small businesses, value people and what they bring to our communities than solely the convenience of “free 2-day shipping”

• I hope we will look at our impact on the environment and what things we can do day to day to be friendlier to the world around us

• I hope we don’t all snap back to the hustle and bustle we were all in a few months ago, and forget 27

Chapter 8: My Hopes and Dreams from this (Hopefully Unique) Experience all that we’ve learned, shared, and experienced over the past few weeks

This is my reflection on this COVID-19 lockdown experience, what’s yours?

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Rand Morimoto, Ph.D., MBA, husband, father, blah blah blah

Normally I would have some fancy “about the author”

section here talking about my expertise on whatever topic I was writing about. But for this book, I’m just

“some guy” that wanted to jot down some notes about the very unique place we’re at right now in the midst of this COVID-19 lockdown.

Hopefully we will NEVER have to experience something this crazy again in our lifetimes. But more importantly, I’m hoping we will LEARN something from this experience! Think about how we live our lives, how we impact our environment, how we get on that treadmill of life day in and day out after this, and think about our true impact on all we do.

No one would have ever thought we could stop the world, stop all commerce, pause everything to keep from infecting one another and potentially killing our family, friends, and neighbors. But we HAVE done some pretty drastic things. So we aren’t powerless, we actually have a lot of power to do things if we choose to do so.

Hopefully we can take this moment to think of ways we can change our future…

If you care to read other ramblings I have, I write a 29

Chapter 8: My Hopes and Dreams from this (Hopefully Unique) Experience blog, you can Google “Rand Morimoto blog” to find it.

Every few days I write on some random topics around life, society, travel, technology, etc.

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Table of Contents

Dedication.............................................................iii

Acknowledgement.................................................iv

Table of Contents....................................................v

Opening Thoughts..................................................1

1 We are SO Busy!..................................................1

Work to Save for the Kid’s Education.................2

Ensuring the Kids are Building “their Resume”..2

Keeping Digitally Connected to the World..........3

2 It Will Never Happen!.........................................5

Shelter at Home Ordinances Lock Us In!............5

Working from Home............................................6

3 Everything is Cancelled and Closed!...................8

The Impact of Venue Closures............................9

The Shift from Retail to Online Shopping...........9

4 A Peaceful World...............................................11

Pollution Levels are Down.................................11

5 Life in a Lockdown............................................13

Video Conferencing for School..........................13

Online Video Birthdays and Celebrations.........14

6 Who’s Affected the Most?..................................16

Healthcare Tied to Employment........................16

7 Any Bright Spots to it all?.................................18

Closer Families..................................................19

Being Aware and Socially Minded.....................20

That We Can (and Need) to Work Together as a

8 My Hopes and Dreams from this (Hopefully

About the Author..................................................23