I read a story recently about a teacher who brought balloons to school and instructed the kids to blow them up and then write their names on their balloons. (Clearly this took place before the COVID-19 pandemic.) She then told them to put all of their balloons in the hallway, and she mixed up all of the balloons and told the kids they had 5 minutes for every kid to find their own balloon. Each child frantically dove into the balloons searching for what they thought of as theirs. But when the time was up, not a single kid had found their own balloon.

The teacher then told them to take the balloon closest to them and find the person whose name was on it, and give them their balloon. Within two minutes every child had their balloon. The teacher said “Balloons are like happiness. No one finds it when they are looking only for their own. But when everyone cares about each other’s happiness, they will find their own much more quickly.”  But I think that the teacher was only partially correct. What also changed was the children stopped looking for an object and started looking for each other. And this is how we will find our way out of this pandemic.  If we look out for each other, if we care about what happens to each and every person’s life and livelihood, if we live by the principal of “love your neighbor as yourself,” it is then and only then, we will find our way out.