"How are you doing?". I'm not sure what to say.

But I can tell you what I'm doing.

Photo by Ed Leszczynskl on Unsplash

“How are you?”

Whew, so many of you are asking that question. I answer it with, “Well, I’m not sure.” If you’ve followed me for any length of time, you’ll know that I’m generally a glass-half-full person. I come by the name ‘Friendly’ in ‘Friendly Neighbor Epidemiologist’ honestly. =) I’m optimistic and hopeful by nature and really want these more personal weekend posts to help encourage you all. But, this week has just been hard for public health (well, and neighboring), one of the hardest so far. So, I’m not sure what to say. This week, I’m just so sad and mad. I’m not ok and know many of you feel the same. I know this won’t last and hope will come again. (My therapist reminds me that the height of anxiety always come down and never lasts. I think that goes for fear and sadness too.) But, for now, this is what I have, and I think that’s ok. I don’t want to have a false hope and/or joy for the sake of not seeing reality for what it is. Many of you know that my worldview is anchored in the Good Samaritan story - the story of a man who was hurt on the side of the road and 2 people representing privilege and power of that time just walked by before one man finally stopped to help. So, I don’t want to simply ‘walk by’ right now by pretending like everything is ok. It’s not and perhaps the most hopeful thing to do is to meet the reality of the story and stop to help the one hurting. For many of you, that’s you today. Me too. Let’s see how to do that together today.

****These paid posts are always more personal than my regular science ones, like the Neighbor Tuesday posts. If you’re wondering why, here’s an explanation. Not all of you will want the personal musings and I totally understand that. I also include why I give a preview of these posts to everyone. Not as a bait-and-switch! Believe me, that’s about as opposite of me as you can get. It’s simply to let you all know what content is in the paid posts in case it’s something you’re interested in. The science posts are always free! If you are interested in these paid posts, the annual subscription is 40% off right now through Lent.***