COVID-19. Follow John's path: do what is allowed, but no one wants to do it anymore

I assume this new year won't go away at all in a simple way, so I feel like sharing a little bit of John's life for last year. Maybe as inspiration, or as a model. John means that to me.

John, 62, is a public manager. He lives in a western country.

John's main rule: Follow the rules, but feel free to do things.

End of February 2020: he was skeptical, but gathered information from all his acquaintances about what a virus could mean for the human species.

First week of March: he was slightly agitated, canceling his lunch meeting with a person who had recently been in a gathering of over 400 people. He began eating only in Italian restaurants, being their only client. At that moment, Italy was terrorized by the virus and Europe rejected everything related to Italy. How naive, those restaurants were placed hundreds of miles away! But how true, we all have witnessed it in our countries.

Middle of March: The story known as "the global lockdown" began.

...and John started a rigorous program in all the essential aspects of his life:

• Family: John could not see his family until the Easter holidays, as he was forced to work remote, from the city where he is employed. Meanwhile, the situation has changed.

Drawing the line, John lovingly states that during that time there are so many couples who broke up sitting in the same house. On the contrary, he now has a much stronger relationship with his wife.

• Job: About a week or two after the world locked down, John still had to go to the office for essential matters that fall solely to a manager. He wore gloves and a mask, even inside - at that time it was said that Covid19 is detectable on shoes and on any surface.

Subsequently, his series of daily video-teleconferences, webinars and meetings began. He tested Zoom, Webex and several similar applications. He embraced DIGITAL.

And so, his life moved on.

• Covid19: John learned from all the sources he had access to - read the news and compared it, spoke with experts in various fields, and with acquaintances from the US, Chinese and European countries.
• Housekeeping: he continued to ask the woman who cleaned his house to come weekly; he made sure to be gone when she was inside and to return two hours after she left; he panicked only once - in mid-March, it was on a Tuesday, when there were no surface cleaners available for buying. He bought the only product forgotten on the shelf and remembered the pharmacist's advice, that everything that means soap is good.
• Food: The restaurants were closed, and for John it was a test of resilience, as he used to eat lunch and sometimes dinner in town. He began to prepare a healthy breakfast, based mainly on eggs, cheese, butter, seeds. He tried to still have lunch at 12 o'clock - for about two weeks, his meal consisted of canned food. Then, John began to marinate the meat and baked it in the oven, with vegetables. Dinner was always frugal.
• Shopping: he did not dedicate a specific day of the week, but he always goes in the morning, at the opening time. He buys enough food for a week.
• Sports: John left the house for at least an hour every day. By bike or on foot, regardless of the weather. Sports were allowed in the proximity of the house and fortunately John's town is full of natural parks.
• Clothing: John's employer demands office attire, so he has always tried not to appear in home clothes in front of the camera. It gave him a sense of normality. Of course, not so many shirts were needed anymore, so he ordered several T-shirts and sports accessories online.
• Social life: John had no in person meetings - they were forbidden. He continued to discuss on WhatsApp or Skype with whom he had a form of connection and even extended it, with whom he could.
• Travel: Beginning of June 2020 - travel was allowed again. John followed the map of restrictions and was among the first tourists to visit by car the first most affected country - Italy. He went to Lombardy, visited an empty Venice, then Naples and the Amalfi Coast. John was thirsty for beauty and at that time only Italians had the courage to travel to Italy. Restaurants and hotels applied drastic hygiene and safety measures, he felt himself privileged like a king. End of July - John traveled on the Cote d'Azur and returned as soon as he read the first rumors that Nice would be considered a red zone. There he looked for non-tourist beach, restaurants and accommodation with great reviews for respecting the hygiene measures.

For now...

We can see that John behaved more cautiously than he usually would, and most likely now he is waiting to see what happens next: how things are evolving with the newly discovered virus strains, how the vaccination campaign is going on worldwide and how the authorities and people are adapting to them. He will then carefully analyze and decide what can still be done.

Follow the rules! No exception allowed. Discipline.

For several months so far, John noticed that countries are facing a new sort of "partial lockdown", less restrictive and hopefully more effective.

John told a friend that in his opinion vaccination must be carried out in connection with prevention based on testing and smart restrictions, but he knows that nothing happens in an instant, and there is a long way from theory to practice.

John feels ready to apply the same rules in the near future, meaning there is no crazy naive exception to make, and a lot of self-discipline to practice.

Be John, whenever possible!

Life is too short to victimize yourself or to waste it risking your life when disobeying the measures imposed by the authorities.

Learn from John, and live your life with passion! Discipline yourself and sometimes allow yourself a moment of weakness or at least of reflection.

We are facing Covid-19, a treacherous invisible enemy, so if you wanna do things like going somewhere, then follow John's path: go where it's allowed, but no one wants to go.

Be sharp, it's John's only secret. Thus, we can hope the best is yet to come.