Last week I challenged myself to speak less and listen more. That was before I realized how much the novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, would rock my world. I already wrote about the highs and lows of day one of my quest for quiet, and I knew right away just how much of a challenge this was going to be.
I work at a small college in Kentucky. Last Tuesday, everyone on campus got the email saying the semester would be ending early due to the COVID-19 outbreak and that students had to be out by noon on Saturday. As you can imagine, there were a lot of questions, speculation, emotions and opinions. I definitely had my own take on all of the above.
The frenzied feeling around the office lasted well into the weekend, and going home each day was no reprieve. My social media feeds would have me believe the world was ending. I started to think I had satisfactorily picked the worst week to play the quiet game.
It was more than the chaos at work and on the media that were wearing me down, as my fiance happened to be out of town for the week and my therapist cancelled our appointment, twice. The Lord was testing me.
But I’ll tell you what. I believe this little exercise in holding my tongue when it was hardest to do so probably helped me keep my sanity. I know it definitely kept me out of trouble, because I couldn’t possibly be the source of the dubious rumours circulating campus about the shutdown, including one about Dolly Parton (it’s a southern liberal arts college, after all). I also saved myself the embarrassment of sharing my opinions without fully understanding the situation, which often comes back to haunt me later.
I find that the Dunning-Kruger effect is never more apparent than during or after a disastrous event. With COVID-19, for example, I’ve discovered that there is an entire community of infectious disease experts already on my Facebook friends list. This is great news! I will be sure to go directly to them if I myself fall victim to the coronavirus.
Last week was indeed “novel”, so I’m giving myself another shot at this quiet challenge. Some things have settled while new challenges have come up, but it remains that I still have a lot to learn. I already know that my opinions don’t matter nearly as much as the truth does, and when it comes to all that’s going on in the world, I have no idea what I’m talking about. I can’t think of a better time to humble myself, so let’s see this thing through. We’re all in this together.