Thread by @StephTaitWrites

There’s a reason that the White House still requires testing and upgraded ventilation to get anywhere near the President. There’s a reason economic/financial outlets like Bloomberg are seemingly the only ones still truly reporting on Covid. There is a reason #DavosSafe is a thing

The wealthy elite know that one of the BIGGEST competitive advantages they can give themselves their children going into the next century is not having been exposed to repeat Covid infections. It will confer so many intersecting layers of privilege that you can’t put a price on.

So to my fellow Covid conscious folks who are struggling under the weight of how hard everything is right now: try to remember, you’re essentially playing the long game. For all we’re losing out on now, our kids will thank us for it later. But more than that…

Unlike them, you’re not silently stealing the lifeboats while watching everyone else go down with the ship. Your kids are learning what it looks like to fight to save everyone you can. Your kids are learning to center the marginalized and create an ethic of community care.

Your kids are learning the skills now that are going to be necessary to adapt and survive under the climate crisis. They’re growing up with a VERY different version of “normal” already - so it will exponentially easier for them to handle the changes humanity is barreling towards.

Thanks to you, the children of the wealthy elites won’t be the only ones able to lead in the future that’s coming. You’re ensuring there will be a VERY different kind of people ready to lead as well. Something humanity will desperately need if we truly want to survive.

Things are so hard right now. And the reality is, they are going to get much harder still; there is no downplaying that.

But what Covid conscious people - especially Covid conscious PARENTS - are doing right now is so damn IMPORTANT.

Please know that. The future needs you.

When I feel like giving up, I’m trying to remind myself each day what an important gift my kids will be to the coming world. We’re learning to throw out every old metric about what “milestones” are most important and what skills they most need, because so much of it won’t matter.

What sort of future leaders do I want for this coming world? What sort of skills would they most need to not only survive what is coming, but preserve what’s most important to our shared humanity? (And no, I don’t mean prepper stuff.)

How do I raise humans that have an ethic of interdependence and community care? How do I raise humans that are creative problem solvers, who have minds ready to think outside the box to tackle overlapping crises with dwindling resources to pull from?

How do I raise humans that understand the value of preserving culture and history, while also having the flexibility to reimagine their world and let go of systems and even values that aren’t serving us anymore?

How do I raise humans that see whatever privilege they may have as a responsibility they have to steward for the collective good of everyone rather than a shield to protect them from the difficulties that are coming?

These are the sort of question I ask myself when I consider what raising kids looks like to me now.

Raising kids has always been about preparing them for the future, but everything about how you do that changes when you realize THEIR future isn’t going to look like ours did.

All of this lengthy rambling thread to say:

There is a reason the wealthy elites are still playing the long game with Covid.

And I’m deeply grateful to everyone else who makes sure *you’re* playing the long game too.

Because I sure as hell don’t want those people being the only ones left to lead us through what’s coming next.