Social Distancing Journal: Day 6

Adapt to survive; complain to suffer.

Every Saturday morning, I go to the Moncton Market to fetch me some fresh local treats. I get my eggs, bacon, bread and vegetables from the market, and without fail, I show up every Saturday and pick up what I can to support local. Of course, with COVID-19, the market is not an option anymore. It’s now closed to allow society to distance themselves from each other.

Today, I made a point to visit all of the local vendors who are trying their best to cope with the situation. I was impressed by the adaptations that each had made to survive this tough time.

Copain, a local artisan bread company, had a curbside pickup. You would call the telephone number on the window, place your order, give them payment details, and then they would run your order out to you. Brilliant!

Local by Atta, a local leafy green production company, and one of my diet staples with their fresh salads and micro-greens, created an impromptu pickup depot at their plant. To reduce the chances of spreading the virus, they only allowed one person at a time into their shop. Then as I went to hand the gentleman my cash, he had a collection box ready for me to stuff the money into—they took great measures to keep us all safe, but still deliver.

These are challenging times, but as we move along, they are becoming less challenging. The survivors are adapting and changing to make the best of what is a bad situation. Even at the grocery store, people were smiling again, calm and doing what they can. A big contrast to the panic and instability I saw in people last Saturday when toilet paper was the talk of the town.

Humans are the ultimate adaptation machine. Our bodies are adapting every second we live; they don’t have a choice. However, our minds are a different story. We have a choice between giving up to complain or fighting for survival. One way you will adapt, but how satisfied will you be?

Adaptation means change, and change means scarcity, scarcity implies pain. Those who can embrace the pain of adaptation and understand that it’s temporary but necessary to survival are those who will grow from this, just like those small and local companies that I graciously visited yesterday.

I’ve always rooted for the scrappy underdog. They are the definition of survival.