Coronavirus capsule

Time capsules have always intrigued me, because when one is found a sliver of the buried time is brought to light again.

Suddenly, the past becomes the present and the future at the same time.

I’ve never seen one opened except in the movies, but if I were going to bury one now seems like a good time.

Since today’s WordPress Discover prompt is “hidden,” and one of the suggestions is to write five to seven items you’d place in a time capsule to be opened in 30 years, I thought I’d give it a try.

We will get through this together.

Someday, the coronavirus will be gone.

This present pandemic’s end will come, and it will be part of history.

A true time capsule of 2020 could not be complete without at least a reference to it, though at this point it probably warrants more than a reference.

It sounds a little tired to say we live in unprecedented times because it’s been said so much, but it’s no less true.

I’ve even heard this year branded something like, “The age of coronavirus” so here’s my attempt at a time capsule to be dug up 30 years from now.

I’d include the letter below to try to explain the unprecedented times in which we live.

Dear people who happen to be present when this time capsule is unearthed:

I’d like to first congratulate y’all on being a part of something cool like cracking open a hidden time capsule, and then I’d suggest all of you give yourselves a pat on the back for 30 more trips around the sun.

Good.

I’ll spend a few sentences to tell you a little about myself.

When I wrote this letter for somebody else to put in the ground, I was 34 years old.

If you’ve followed instructions and opened this capsule 30 years from the day it was written you’ve opened it when I’m 64, which is a Beatles song.

I’ve gotten older and I might be losing my hair, but I doubt it.

I hope I don’t have to ask you if you’ll still feed me (64 is plenty young enough to still feed myself, I hope), but you may still need me to explain what’s in this coronavirus capsule so I’ll get right to it.

1. This is a mask. It was worn to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, which was a serious respiratory virus. We believed it spread person to person through droplets, like those which come out when someone coughs or sneezes so it was eventually suggested (and in some places required) we wear a mask like this one if we were somewhere within 6 feet of someone else.

2. This is hand sanitizer. There was a renewed emphasis on how important it is to keep your hands clean, as well as how to wash them well and often. We used this stuff to kill germs on our hands between washes, until our hands cracked and bled.

3. I hope you already know what this is, but just in case, it’s a roll of toilet paper. There was a run on toilet paper early in the outbreak. It’s been 30 years and I still don’t know why. If one of y’all could use the benefit of hindsight to explain the reason to my 64-year-old self, well, that’d be great.

4. People who are better writers than me took to the Internet and kept coronavirus journals to record the global pandemic and the lockdown it caused. A few of them are included here on this old iPhone. Speaking of iPhones, what number are we on now? Maybe a better question would be what kind of charger does it have?

5. Lastly, I hope somebody buried a few videos so y’all can see how vacant places were when people stayed home as much as they could to try to keep one another safe. I really hope one of the videos shows how people picked a time each day to clap for essential workers who risked their lives every day. They kept us going, kept us learning and kept us alive. They’re the reason we’re still here. They’re the reason some of you can read this letter. They deserve gratitude and respect without end.

I am glad you’ve uncovered this hidden time capsule.

It means we’ve reached a point where all I’ve told you is in the past, a memory three decades gone.

It means we did get through this together.