I have found joy during this difficult period. An embarrassing abundance of joy.
If you had asked me what I wanted most for 2020, my last year with my youngest child at home before becoming an empty nester, it would have been to slow down, travel less, spend more quiet time with the family, and have opportunities to appreciate all that we are fortunate to have. Well, thanks to the coronavirus, I have had all of these in spades.
When the virus swept the US in March, we hunkered down as a family. Instead of the planned empty nest, we found ourselves with an overflowing nest with our three young adult children (23, 21, 18), a boyfriend and a mother-in-law all living together and finding the new normal in walks, games, cooking projects, movies, and books. We even hosted a number of my son’s high school buddies (after ensuring a strict pre-game quarantine) for weeks at a time to allow for robust social time.
In addition to providing rich family time with our closest loved ones, an odd element of this pandemic is that it has been an amazingly productive one for me professionally. I have thrown myself into a number of fulfilling civic projects, including importing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) from China with the help of a team of HBS students and creating a first-of-its-kind course on racial equity and justice at Harvard Business School. And as a technology venture capitalist at a time when technology seems to be the center of the universe, my business has remained robust.
I share all this with great reluctance as I do feel, in many ways, guilty for my good fortune. The pandemic has wreaked havoc on so many lives and communities that it should not be celebrated in any way. And I am self-conscious about seeming too Pollyannaish in my outlook amidst great anxiety and stress, particularly on the direction of our country and our planet. But, in truth, I have found tremendous joy and satisfaction during this period and relish my tikkun olam work and the closeness with my loved ones that this moment in history has afforded.
