I had a thought yesterday—that one day, right now will be remembered as the good ol’ days. Even with shelter-in-place, with being separated from loved ones and not living the life we are accustomed to enjoying, life is still grand.

Sure, these are extraordinary times we are living in. Unprecedented. Awesome, in the pure sense of the word. Did any of us even imagine today’s world? Yes, it’s horrible. People are sick, people are dying. Coming to terms with that hurts your soul on a very visceral level. But this pandemic can also serve as a great teacher.

Look how far we’ve come as a species. Things were not perfect before Covid-19, far from it, but they were still an infinite improvement on daily life in the 1800s, or the Middle Ages, or 2000 years ago. We have made great progress. Hopefully this pandemic can shed some light upon that reality. Hopefully the pandemic also brings us closer together. Hopefully it makes plain that we are one large group of primates spread across the surface of a floating sphere in space. That we are all interconnected; this interconnectivity flows through every living thing on this planet.

This pandemic is revealing how “ordinary” people can be heroes. Our healthcare workers are proving the word ‘duty’ isn’t solely owned by the military. “Ordinary” people are demonstrating we do indeed live in communities, that it’s possible, even when it’s difficult, to be a good neighbor. I walk the sidewalks, adorned with uplifting chalk messages drawn by children, filled with hope.

Hope that we see. Hope that we learn. Hope is contagious. Spread it. We can do this. We can emerge from this global crisis stronger than before, more connected than before, more committed to our ideals than before. We can emerge with a greater sense of humanity, with more collective discipline and more resolve. We can change this world. It starts with a little bit of hope.