What We Could Hear with the Volume Turned Down

Corona has given the world an opportunity to listen.

Noise volume has been turned way down and in many places, turned off.

Businesses are closed, office hours are limited, and social distancing has created physical space between us.

But our ability to communicate has not been infected. We have the chance to hear from our human family all around the globe: hear the crying, hear the laughing, hear the sighing; hear about our values, what we each need and want; hear about how we come together in crisis, or how we don't; hear about what causes one person to feel lonely actually makes another feel energized. We have limited physical and commercial mobility, but there is no limit to what we have to gain from listening and learning from one another during COVID-19.

My dream is after this crisis has passed, we will decide to keep the noise volume down and in some places, maybe even turned off.

— Lee Ann Haney