About one year ago we realized that Covid-19 was changing everything. This weekend the WSJ asked leaders in an assortment of professions to reflect on what they each learned from that experience. Of the thirteen articles published, here are my favorites selected for their uniqueness, optimism, and sense of humor:

• Sandra Boynton, artist, author, and song writer says “…in this past unfathomable year, seeing so many essential workers steadily doing their essential work, I’ve felt some uneasiness about being, essentially, non-essential.” She continues, “having watched my own daughters and their husbands orchestrate this past year for their small children—I see and remember what parents do, and how wondrous and difficult that can be, and how important it is.”
• Neil Degrasse Tyson, director of Hayden Planetarium in New York’s American Museum of Natural History, states: “We apparently have passed through a portal where pseudoscience, anti-science, fear of science and science-denial all thrive…So perhaps what I really learned… is that science needs better marketing—refined and persistent—so that no one will ever take its discoveries for granted.” He goes on to describe flying in a jet plane, instant world-wide communication on the internet, and the instantaneous cell phone connections that continue to increase at hyper-speed and says thankyou scientists.”
• “Turning the unknown into something we look forward to exploring is the antidote to fear.” That is Esther Perel, therapist, speaker, and podcast host’s opinion on how to deal with the unknown virus. She explains, “A year ago, when confronted with the unknown, our immediate focus was on physical health. We stopped living in order not to die.” She states that “…meaniful social connections are crucial, ever more so in a crisis.”
• Lastly, here is some wisdom from Tom Hanks—you know—that actor, screenwriter, producer and director: “Never play solitaire again. The virus has taught us that life and health are precarious and we must not squander precious time. The tiniest bit of our physical world, like a virus, can rob us of vitality, community, family, and purpose—whether we got sick or not… Our time is limited and finite. Solitaire squanders what is precious. Don’t ever play solitaire again.”

Amen and sweet dreams.